Fig. 2

Maximum-likelihood phylogenetic tree calculated from Babesia (B.) spp. from the Babesia conradae/duncani/lengau group using partial 18S ribosomal rRNA sequences. The outgroup (light grey square) consists of several species from the Babesia microti group. Spotted hyenas from Namibia (SHNA) and Tanzania (SHTZ) are highlighted in red and orange, respectively, while brown hyenas from Namibia (BHNA) are coloured in blue. The host species name is abbreviated for dogs (Canis lupus familiaris = C. familiaris) and domestic cats (Felis silvestris catus = F. catus) while the host species are provided with the genus name abbreviated: meerkat (Suricata suricatta), lion (Panthera leo), cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus), red fox (Vulpes vulpes), golden jackal (Canis aureus), a bat (Pipistrellus sp.), fallow deer (Dama dama), humans (Homo sapiens), mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis), castor bean tick (Ixodes ricinus), Chevrier's field mouse (Apodemus chevrieri). Node support values represent the results of the Shimodaira–Hasegawa approximate likelihood ratio tests before and of ultrafast bootstrapping behind the slash. The scale bar represents 0.04 substitutions per site. The country from which the samples originate are indicated using the ISO 3266-2 two letter code: BW: Botswana; CN: China; DE: Germany; ES: Spain; IL: Israel; IQ: Iraq; TR: Turkey; UK: United Kingdom; US: United States of America; ZA: South Africa. The ID values for the hyenas from this study correspond to the IDs of individual animals listed in Additional file 1: Table S1