ABSTRACT

Variability of 12 non-metric traits was studied on skulls of 103 individuals of the Fat dormouse (Glis glis L) from Vitosha Mountains, Rhodope Mountains and four populations located in the Mountain system of Stara planina in Bulgaria. The epigenetic variability of these 6 groups of Glis glis is similar in the studied populations. The lack of clearly outlined epigenetic differentiation between the Fat dormouse populations in Bulgaria showed that the occurrence of non-metric variants cannot serve as an unequivocal basis for the assignment of a particular individual to a concrete geographic population. Nevertheless, the frequencies of occurrence of non-metric variants population samples may provide information on directional tendency of the epigenetic population structure of the species in its main habitats in the Stara planina Mountain system, where the populations express the microgeographic epigenetic fragmentation of the Fat dormouse in Bulgaria.