Female Philopatry and Extreme Spatial Genetic Heterogeneity in White-Tailed Deer

Genetic diversity and population structure of Scottish Highland red deer (Cervus elaphus) populations: a mitochondrial survey

“…The fact that a higher differentiation value was attained when the genetic distance among haplotypes was considered (F ST ) indicates that on average haplotypes found within a particular area were more similar to each other than to haplotypes found in other areas. Isolation by distance explained 17.48% of the genetic variation, a similar amount to that found in white-tailed deer from the coastal plain of Georgia and South Carolina (16.81%, Z ¼ 0.41, Purdue et al, 2000). A previous microsatellitebased study showed that landscape features, in particular those located along the Great Glen, significantly influenced the population genetic structure of Scottish Highland red deer (Pérez-Espona et al, 2008).…”

“…Nonetheless, comparisons with results from studies conducted at a similar geographical scale indicate that Scottish Highland red deer are more diverse than Japanese Sika deer in Kantoh (average h ¼ 0.37; Yuasa et al, 2007) and white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) from the coastal plain of Georgia and South Carolina (average h ¼ 0.41; Purdue et al, 2000). The low genetic diversity found in these two studies in comparison to our study can be attributed to the impact of severe habitat fragmentation in Sika deer in the Kantoh (Yuasa et al, 2007) and to overharvesting of white-tailed deer from the coastal plain of Georgia and South Carolina in the early nineteenth century (Purdue et al, 2000). Genetic diversity found in Scottish Highland red deer was within the range of that found in other genetic surveys of European populations of deer conducted at larger geographical scales (for example, Hartl et al, 2003 andFeulner et al, 2004 for red deer; Vernesi et al, 2002 andRoyo et al, 2007 for roe deer).…”

Islands in the sea: extreme female natal site fidelity in the Australian sea lion,Neophoca cinerea

“…The level of female philopatry is on a far finer scale than previously seen in any other marine mammal (Maldonado et al 1995;Bickham et al 1996;Lamont et al 1996;Slade et al 1998), more akin to isolated populations of terrestrial animals (e.g. white-tailed deer in Purdue et al 2000). Haplotype diversity was very low within colonies, with all but two colonies displaying fixation of the control region haplotype.…”

Spatial patterns of mitochondrial and nuclear gene pools in chamois (Rupicapra r. rupicapra) from the Eastern Alps

“…The first hypothesis is substantiated by telemetric findings in chamois from the Western Alps, which indicate philopatry of female chamois and a tendency to dispersal in bucks (Loison et al, 1999). Such sex-specific dispersal was also envisaged to explain higher levels of substructuring of mitochondrial than nuclear gene pools in bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) from southwestern USA and Mexico (Ramey, 1995), wolverines (Gulo gulo) from the Northwest Territories, Canada (Wilson et al, 2000), and whitetailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) from the coastal plain in Georgia and South Carolina, USA (Purdue et al, 2000). As regards balanced polymorphism, overdominance has been suggested to occur at diverse allozymic loci of various ungulate species.…”