Abstract

A study of the exterior and craniometric characteristics of European roe deer (n = 244) from Ukraine showed that animals from southern populations outperform their counterparts from northern areas in most indicators. This is observed in all age groups regardless of sex. Certain geographical differences were found between the south–eastern, south–western and Crimean populations. They were most noticeable in the forests of the Crimean mountains, where an isolated aboriginal centre of European roe deer has been preserved. Two well–differentiated haplogroups were identified in Ukraine, with a separate subgroup of closely related haplotypes in Crimea, which is a consequence of the long–term geographical isolation of the roe deer population on the Crimean peninsula.