The impact of past introductions on an iconic and economically important species, the red deer of Scotland

The red deer (Cervus elaphus) is an iconic species in Scotland and, due to its value as a game species, an important element of the Scottish rural economy. The native status of this species is sometimes questioned because of many recorded introductions of nonnative deer in the past that were an attempt to improve trophy size. In this study, we assessed the impact of past introductions on the genetic makeup of Scottish red deer by genotyping at 15 microsatellite loci a large number of samples (n = 1152), including mainland and island Scottish red deer and individuals from several putative external source populations used in introductions to improve trophy size. Population structure and introgression assessment analyses revealed that the impact of introductions was weak in Highland red deer populations but more prominent on the islands, especially on those where current red deer populations are mostly or entirely derived from introductions (Harris & Lewis, Arran, and Rum). Frequent imports of Central-Eastern European red deer into English deer parks were reflected in the higher genetic introgression values found in some of the individuals collected in parks

First assessment of MHC diversity in wild Scottish red deer populations

Control and mitigation of disease in wild ungulate populations are one of the major challenges in wildlife management. Despite the importance of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes for immune response, assessment of diversity on these genes is still rare for European deer populations. Here, we conducted the first assessment of variation at the second exon of the MHC DRB in wild populations of Scottish highland red deer, the largest continuous population of red deer in Europe. Allelic diversity at these loci was high, with 25 alleles identified. Selection analyses indicated c. 22% of amino acids encoded under episodic positive selection. Patterns of MHC allelic distribution were not congruent with neutral population genetic structure (estimated with 16 nuclear microsatellite markers) in the study area, the latter showing a marked differentiation between populations located at either side of the Great Glen. This study represents a first step towards building an immunogenetic map of red deer populations across Scotland to aid future management strategies for this ecologically and economically important species

Alcohol and early mortality (before 65 years) in the ‘seguimiento Universidad de Navarra’ (SUN) cohort: does any level reduce mortality?

The aim of this study was to assess the association between alcohol intake and premature mortality (younger than 65 years) and to explore the effect of potential alcohol underreporting by heavy drinkers. We followed-up 20 272 university graduates. Four categories of alcohol intake were considered (abstainer, light, moderate and heavy consumption). Repeated measurements of alcohol intake and updated information on confounders were used in time-dependent Cox models. Potential underreporting of alcohol intake by some heavy drinkers (likely misclassified as light or moderate drinkers) was explicitly addressed in an attempt to correct potential underreporting by using indirect information. During 12·3 years of median follow-up (interquartile range: 6·8–15·0), 226 participants died before their 65th birthday. A higher risk of early mortality was found for the highest category of alcohol intake (≥50 g/d) in comparison with abstention (multivariable-adjusted hazard ratio (HR) = 2·82, 95 % CI 1·38, 5·79). In analyses of alcohol as a continuous variable, the multivariable-adjusted HR was 1·17 (95 % CI 1·08, 1·26), for each 10 g/d of alcohol. This harmful linear association was present both in uncorrected models and in models corrected for potential underreporting. No significant inverse association between light or moderate alcohol intake and premature mortality was observed, even after correcting for potential misclassification. Alcohol intake exhibited a harmful linear dose–response association with premature mortality (<65 years) in this young and highly educated Mediterranean cohort. Our attempts to correct for potential misclassification did not substantially change these results

Scaling methane emissions in ruminants and global estimates in wild populations

Methane (CH) emissions by human activities have more than doubled since the 1700s, and they contribute to global warming. One of the sources of CH is produced by incomplete oxidation of feed in the ruminant's gut. Domestic ruminants produce most of the emissions from animal sources, but emissions by wild ruminants have been poorly estimated. This study (i) scales CH against body mass in 503 experiments in ruminants fed herbage, and assesses the effect of different sources of variation, using published and new data; and (ii) it uses these models to produce global estimates of CH emissions from wild ruminants. The incorporation of phylogeny, diet and technique of measuring in to a model that scales log CH g d against log body mass (kg), reduces the slope, from 1.075 to 0.868, making it not significantly steeper than the scaling coefficient of metabolic requirements to body mass. Scaling models that include dry matter intake (DMI) and dietary fiber indicate that although both increase CH, dietary fiber depresses CH as the levels of DMI increases. Cattle produces more CH per unit of DMI than red deer, sheep or goat, and there are no significant differences between CH produced by red deer and sheep. The average estimates of global emissions from wild ruminants calculated using different models are smaller (1.094–2.687 Tg y) than those presented in the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (15 Tg yr). Potential causes to explain such discrepancy are the uncertainty on the world's wild ruminant population size, and the use of methane output from cattle, a high methane producer, as representative methane output of wild ruminants. The main limitation researchers’ face in calculating accurate global CH emissions from wild ungulates is a lack of reliable information on their population sizes.FJP-B was granted with a visiting professor fellowship by the University of Cordoba during the writing of this paper. FJP-B thank Dr Ramón Soriguer-Scofet (Estación Biológica de Doñana, CSIC, Spain) for access to on-line library facilities; and The European Union Lifelong learning programme (Leonardo da Vinci) and Global Learning, for supporting post-graduate students that assisted the work of this study

Senescence and differential investment in maternal reproductive life history traits of red deer: milk yield, milk composition and calf growth

Senescence and differential investment in maternal reproductive life history traits of red deer: milk yield, milk composition and calf growthSenescencia e inversión diferencial en los rasgos del ciclo de vida reproductiva materna del ciervo rojo: producción de leche, composición de la leche y crecimiento de las cría

The functional relationship between feeding type and jaw and cranial morphology in ungulates

The relationship between jaw and skull morphology and feeding type (grazer, mixed feeder, browser, frugivorous, omnivorous) was analysed in 94 species of extant ungulates. A total of 21 morphological traits of the jaw and skull (17 and 4, respectively) were analysed using analysis of covariance, with body mass as covariate. To take into account the phylogenetic effect, simulations were generated under the Brownian motion model of character evolution. Analysis of covariance was applied to these simulations and the simulated F-ratios were used to assess the signification of the F-ratios for the real values of the traits. The feeding types had a weak effect on ungulate cranial and jaw morphology in comparison with the phylogenetic effect, since, before phylogeny correction, the analysis of covariance showed statistically significant differences associated with feeding type in 15 out of the 21 traits analysed. After controlling for phylogeny, only 2 significant traits remained, the length of the coronoid process and the occipital height. Omnivorous species had shorter coronoid processes than grazers or mixed feeders, and the occipital height was greater in the omnivorous species than in the grazers, mixed feeders or browsers. The coronoid process is involved in the generation of bite force, being the effective moment arm of the temporalis muscle, and occipital height is positively related to the force exerted by the temporalis muscle. This result matches the hypothesis that species with a toughness diet should show higher bite force ("toughness" describes the resistance of a material to being mechanically broken down). When the omnivorous species were excluded from the analysis, no differences in jaw and skull morphology were detected between the rest of the feeding types

Gregariousness increases brain size in ungulates

The brain's main function is to organise the physiological and behavioural responses to environmental and social challenges in order to keep the organism alive. Here, we studied the effects that gregariousness (as a measurement of sociality), dietary habits, gestation length and sex have on brain size of extant ungulates. The analysis controlled for the effects of phylogeny and for random variability implicit in the data set. We tested the following groups of hypotheses: (1) Social brain hypothesis-gregarious species are more likely to have larger brains than non-gregarious species because the former are subjected to demanding and complex social interactions; (2) Ecological hypothesis-dietary habits impose challenging cognitive tasks associated with finding and manipulating food (foraging strategy); (3) Developmental hypotheses (a) energy strategy: selection for larger brains operates, primarily, on maternal metabolic turnover (i.e. gestation length) in relation to food quality because the majority of the brain's growth takes place in utero, and finally (b) sex hypothesis: females are expected to have larger brains than males, relative to body size, because of the differential growth rates of the soma and brain between the sexes. We found that, after adjusting for body mass, gregariousness and gestation length explained most of the variation in brain mass across the ungulate species studied. Larger species had larger brains; gregarious species and those with longer gestation lengths, relative to body mass, had larger brains than non-gregarious species and those with shorter gestation lengths. The effect of diet was negligible and subrogated by gestation length, and sex had no significant effect on brain size. The ultimate cause that could have triggered the co-evolution between gestation length and brain size remains unclear

Differences in body mass and oral morphology between the sexes in the Artiodactyla: evolutionary relationships with sexual segregation

It has been hypothesized that the evolution of sexual dimorphism could lead to sexual dimorphism in trophic structures, mainly the mouthparts, through inter-sexual niche partitioning. This hypothesis is based on the assumption that females select habitats on the basis of their requirements for diets with high nutrient concentrations (due to pregnancy and lactation), whereas males select for habitats with abundant resources (due to their larger body size and higher absolute nutrient requirement). We analysed a data set of the morphological traits of the mouth and teeth, which have been proposed as being functionally related to food selection ability (muzzle width, incisor protrusion), food comminution (molar occlusal surface area) and intake (incisor breadth), in males and females of species from the mammalian order Artiodactyla. Our analyses showed that all of the morphological traits studied covaried isometrically with body mass. The effect of sharing common ancestors did not have a significant effect on oral morphology, which indicates that oral morphology evolved in parallel in both sexes. We detected differences in body mass between the sexes and these differences remained when phylogeny was taken into account. Our results demonstrate that the dimensions of the oral traits result primarily from differences in body mass between the sexes rather than differences in niche adaptation between the sexes. The relationship between sexual dimorphism in body mass and differences in niche partitioning between the sexes in the Artiodactyla is discussed

Rupicapra pyrenaica Bonaparte, 1845

64 páginas.-- Versión 28/10/2010.Peer reviewe

Rebeco - Rupicapra pyrenaica Bonaparte, 1845

Mamíferos - Orden Artiodactyla - Familia Bovidae en la Enciclopedia Virtual de Vertebrados Españoles, http://www.vertebradosibericos.org/. Versiones anteriores: 16-06-2004; 28-09-2004; 24-07-2008; 28-10-2010A comprehensive review of the natural history of the Pyrenean Chamois Rupicapra pyrenaica in Spain.Peer reviewe