Аннотация:The behavioral and genetic features of the urban mallard population of Moscow were analyzed incomparison with birds from natural populations of European Russia. The following questions were raised:(a) are there any behavioral differences between urban mallards and mallards in nature? and(b) are there any genetic differences between mallards of the Moscow urban and natural populations? The flight initiation distance and the preferred distance in relation to a human in the city and in nature were determined. Tissues for DNA analysis were taken from mallards far from Moscow. DNA was isolated by the phenol–chloroform method, 12 primers were used for PCR. The effectiveness of PCR was controlled by setting up agarose electrophoresis;fragment analysis was performed using the QI Axcel Advanced device. The flight distances andpreferred distances in nature and in the city differed with a high degree of confidence (p < 0.01). DNA comparison was carried out on six microsatellite loci. Processing of results in the R environment (hierstat package) revealed reduced heterozygosity in comparison with the expected one, as well as the presence of small but significant differences in allele frequencies between urban and wild populations (Fisher index 0.037–0.128). The distance between birds from urban and natural populations is 0.24. Positive answers were receivedto both questions. Birds from the two compared populations differ significantly in behavior, and moderately in neutral genetic markers. Thus, mallards from the sedentary urban group show signs of genetic isolation from the natural migratory populations of Central Russia (Vladimir region).DOI: 10.1134/S2079086423030039
