Species that have been translocated and otherwise manipulated by humans may show patterns of population structure that reflect those interactions. At the same time, natural processes shape populations, including behavioural characteristics like dispersal potential and breeding system. In Europe, a key factor is the geography and history of climate change through the Pleistocene. During glacial maxima throughout that period, species in Europe with temperate distributions were forced south, becoming distributed among the isolated peninsulas represented by Anatolia, Italy and Iberia. Understanding modern patterns of diversity depends on understanding these historical population dynamics. Traditionally, European fallow deer (Dama dama dama) are thought to have been restricted to refugia in Anatolia and possibly Sicily and the Balkans. However, the distribution of this species was also greatly influenced by human-mediated translocations. We focus on fallow deer to better understand the relative influence of these natural and anthropogenic processes. We compared modern fallow deer putative populations across a broad geographic range using microsatellite and mitochondrial DNA loci. The results revealed highly insular populations, depauperate of genetic variation and significantly differentiated from each other. This is consistent with the expectations of drift acting on populations founded by small numbers of individuals, and reflects known founder populations in the north. However, there was also evidence for differentiation among (but not within) physically isolated regions in the south, including Iberia. In those regions we find evidence for a stronger influence from natural processes than may be expected for a species with such strong, known anthropogenic influence.

Because many bird species are monomorphic or only sexually dimorphic in adult stages, it is difficult to determine their sexes, which may cause significant problems in population and conservation studies. DNA-based sexing relies on the chromodomain helicase DNA binding ( CHD) gene located on the W chromosome and its homolog on the Z chromosome, giving distinct banding patterns on agarose gel as a result of length differences in intronic regions within this gene. We used 3 specific primer sets, CHD1F/CHD1R, 2550F/2718R, and P2/P8, for sex determination of 230 samples from 77 avian species. We report here the records for 70 of those species analyzed using the CHD1F/CHD1R primer set, and 49 species using 2550F/2718R, and 46 species using P2/P8. CHD1F/CHD1R PCR products on agarose gel generally showed an apparent single band in males and 2 bands in females, but the products of 2550F/2718R (61%) and P2/P8 (42%) showed distinct banding patterns for separate bird orders. However, when PCR products of these last 2 primer pairs labeled with fluorescent dye were run in a capillary gel and detected using a DNA analyzer, P2/P8 gave 2 distinguishable peaks in females, whereas 2550F/2718R results remained the same. DNA sexing with any of those 3 primer sets can be used for all sexually monomorphic avian taxa although the primer sets should be compared before choosing the most efficient one for molecular sexing of the studied species.