Differentiation of Castor fiber and Castor canadensis by noninvasive molecular methods

The aim of the study was to develop a simple and reliable method for differ entiation of the two phenotypic, very similar Eurasian and North American b eavers. Hair bulbs were plucked as tissue samples from the fur of living an imals. The mitochondrial cytochrome b locus was amplified by polymerase cha in reaction and sequenced. The fragments of the two species differed at 44/ 41 nucleotide sites. RsaI recognised two mutations, resulting in a restrict ion fragment length polymorphism that seems to be species specific, as coul d be revealed by the banding pattern. Zoo Biol 19:511-515, 2000. (C) 2000 W iley-Liss, Inc.