Estimating Abundance of Siberian Roe Deer Using Fecal-DNA Capture-Mark-Recapture in Northeast China

Abstract

<jats:p> It is necessary to estimate the population abundance of deer for managing their populations. However, most estimates are from high-density populations inhabiting the forests of North America or Europe; there is currently a lack of necessary knowledge regarding low-density deer populations in different forest habitats. In this article, we used fecal DNA based on the capture-mark-recapture method to estimate the population abundance of Siberian roe deer (Capreolus pygargus) in Liangshui National Nature Reserve in the Lesser Xing’an Mountains, northeast China, where the deer population was found to be of a low density by limited studies. We used a robust survey design to collect 422 fecal pellet groups in 2016 and extracted DNA from those samples, generating 265 different genotypes; we thus identified 77 deer individuals based on six microsatellite markers (Roe1, Roe8, Roe9, BM757, MB25 and OarFCB304). With capture and recapture records of these 77 individuals, the abundance of roe deer was estimated to be 87 deer (80–112, 95% CI) using the Program CAPTURE. Using an effective sampling area which resulted from the mean maximum recapture distance (MMRD), we converted the population abundance to a density of 2.9 deer/km2 (2.7–3.7, 95% CI). Our study estimated the roe deer population abundance by a feces-based capture-mark-recapture approach in northeast China, successfully demonstrating the applicability of non-invasive genetic sampling in monitoring populations of deer in this area, which contributes to the development of low-density deer population ecology and management.</jats:p>

Functional connectivity in northern swamp deer (Rucervus duvaucelii duvaucelii) population across a fragmented, human-dominated landscape along Gangetic Plains of north India: Implications for conservation in non-protected areas

“…This is particularly important as significant portion of the northern swamp deer distribution is outside protected area regime, where conventional management/ conservation efforts based on Government regulations are ineffective. In this regard, future efforts should consider using standard genetic (microsatellites as in this study and others- Coulon et al 2006Frantz et al 2006Miotto et al 2011Atterby et al 2015Vergara et al 2015 or genomic (SNPs-Edea et al 2013;Viengkone et al 2016;Brito et al 2017;Hua and Minghai 2017) markers in a mark capture-recapture framework to estimate swamp deer populations in this landscape (Andreotti et al 2016;Kierepka et al 2016;Sethi et al 2016;Viengkone et al 2016;Blåhed et al 2019;Cook et al 2020;Li et al 2020) and assess landscape-scale genetic and demographic parameters, as other standard population estimation approaches such as Camera Trap, Line Transect-(Andriolo et al 2005;Fragoso et al 2016;Meek et al 2019;Paul et al 2019). are not conducive in the human-dominated landscape.…”