[Allozyme variability of the European bean Castor fiber 1758 (Castoridae, Rodentia) from the Voronezh State Nature Reserve].

Electrophoretic methods were used to study protein products of 32 gene loci in the blood of European and Canadian beavers held in captivity at the Voronezh State Nature Reserve. In the studied samples, the levels of polymorphism and average heterozygosity exceeded the average values of corresponding indices determined for beavers that inhabit temperate zones. To what extent the studied samples represent the state of the gene pool of parental populations is discussed. A comparison between allozyme spectra of samples of European and Canadian beavers revealed many coinciding polymorphic loci, on the one hand, and pronounced genetic divergence of these species, on the other.