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Interspecific hybridisation studies enable to understand the process of speciation. While studying hybridising protected animals, one should concentrate also to the aspects of conservation. The Greater and the Lesser Spotted Eagles are two threatened bird species, which are able to form mixed species breeding pairs and produce viable hybrid offspring. Interbreeding is an important threat factor for European Greater Spotted Eagle population, but it has remained poorly studied. The objectives of current project are: 1) to find nuclear markers for separating Lesser and Greater Spotted Eagles, and for identification of first and later generation hybrids, and backcrosses; 2) to analyse the extent of hybridisation and the composition of spotted eagle populations in the sympatric part of species' ranges. For implementation of the objectives, we apply molecular methods; we use three types of nuclear markers with different sensitivity (introns of nuclear genes, microsatellites, AFLP-markers), and a mitochondrial marker (pseudo-control region) for analysing maternal lineages. We use genetic samples collected from Estonia and from other countries. Participants of the project include 1 researcher, 1 MSc student and 1-2 undergraduate students. Analysis of spotted eagles' hybridisation enables to understand the nature of interbreeding in raptors, a hitherto poorly studied bird group in respect to this issue, and to extrapolate the results to other animal groups. Results increase also the knowledge about the formation of isolation barriers during speciation (e.g. Haldane's rule), and to anwer to other questions concerning speciaton. The results of the project are strongly needed for the efficient conservation of the globally threatened Greater Spotted Eagle, because a large proportion of its population is affected by interbreeding with the Lesser Spotted Eagle. |