Moreno, E., Pérez-González, J., Carranza, J., Moya-Laraño, J. (2015) Better Fitness in Captive Cuvier’s Gazelle despite Inbreeding Increase: Evidence of Purging? PLoS ONE 10(12): e0145111.

Captive breeding of endangered species often aims at preserving genetic diversity and to avoid the harmful effects of inbreeding. However, deleterious alleles causing inbreeding depression can be purged when inbreeding persists over several generations. Despite its great importance both for evolutionary biology and for captive breeding programmes, few studies have addressed whether and to which extent purging may occur. Here we undertake a longitudinal study with the largest captive population of Cuvier’s gazelle managed under a European Endangered Species Programme since 1975. Previous results in this population have shown that highly inbred mothers tend to produce more daughters, and this fact was used in 2006 to reach a more appropriate sex-ratio in this polygynous species by changing the pairing strategy (i.e., pairing some inbred females instead of keeping them as surplus individuals in the population). Here, by using studbook data we explore whether purging has occurred in the population by investigating whether after the change in pairing strategy a) inbreeding and homozygosity increased at the population level, b) fitness (survival) increased, and c) the relationship between inbreeding and juvenile survival, was positive. Consistent with the existence of purging, we found an increase in inbreeding coefficients, homozygosity and juvenile survival. In addition, we showed that in the course of the breeding programme the relationship between inbreeding and juvenile survival was not uniform but rather changed over time: it was negative in the early years, flat in the middle years and positive after the change in pairing strategy. We highlight that by allowing inbred individuals to mate in captive stocks we may favour sex-ratio bias towards females, a desirable managing strategy to reduce the surplus of males that force most zoos to use ethical culling and euthanizing management tools. We discuss these possibilities but also acknowledge that many other effects should be considered before implementing inbreeding and purging as elements in management decisions.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0145111

Martínez-Jauregui, M.,  Herruzo A.C., Carranza, J., Torres-Porras, J., Campos, P. (2016) Environmental Price of Game Animal Stocks, Human Dimensions of Wildlife, 21:1, 1-17

Research has addressed the valuation of hunting and game species according to their extractive value, using both market and no market methodologies. This study provides a new perspective to estimate environmental prices of game animals based on game hunting leases population dynamics, the assumption of a steady state, and the use of the residual valuation method. This, in turn, allows the calculations of the contributions of game animal stock by species, sex, and age. These values are estimated in a manner that is consistent with the exchange value of national accounts, allowing improvement of game species valuation in ecosystem accounting.

https://doi.org/10.1080/10871209.2016.1082682

Pérez-Barbería, F. J., Carranza, J. Sánchez Prieto, C. (2015) Wear Fast, Die Young: More Worn Teeth and Shorter Lives in Iberian Compared to Scottish Red Deer, PLOS ONE 10(8): e0134788

Teeth in Cervidae are permanent structures that are not replaceable or repairable; consequently their rate of wear, due to the grinding effect of food and dental attrition, affects their duration and can determine an animal’s lifespan. Tooth wear is also a useful indicator of accumulative life energy investment in intake and mastication and their interactions with diet. Little is known regarding how natural and sexual selection operate on dental structures within a species in contrasting environments and how these relate to life history traits to explain differences in population rates of tooth wear and longevity. We hypothesised that populations under harsh environmental conditions should be selected for more hypsodont teeth while sexual selection may maintain similar sex differences within different populations. We investigated the patterns of tooth wear in males and females of Iberian red deer (Cervus elaphus hispanicus) in Southern Spain and Scottish red deer (C. e. scoticus) across Scotland, that occur in very different environments, using 10343 samples from legal hunting activities. We found higher rates of both incisor and molar wear in the Spanish compared to Scottish populations. However, Scottish red deer had larger incisors at emergence than Iberian red deer, whilst molars emerged at a similar size in both populations and sexes. Iberian and Scottish males had earlier tooth depletion than females, in support of a similar sexual selection process in both populations. However, whilst average lifespan for Iberian males was 4 years shorter than that for Iberian females and Scottish males, Scottish males only showed a reduction of 1 year in average lifespan with respect to Scottish females. More worn molars were associated with larger mandibles in both populations, suggesting that higher intake and/or greater investment in food comminution may have favoured increased body growth, before later loss of tooth efficiency due to severe wear. These results illustrate how independent selection in both subspecies, that diverged 11,700 years BP, has resulted in the evolution of different longevity, although sexual selection has maintained a similar pattern of relative sex differences in tooth depletion. This study opens interesting questions on optimal allocation in life history trade-offs and the independent evolution of allopatric populations.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0134788

Carranza, J., & Polo, V. (2015) Sexual reproduction with variable mating systems can resist asexuality in a rock–paper–scissors dynamics. Royal Society Open Science 2: 140383.

While sex can be advantageous for a lineage in the long term, we still lack an explanation for its maintenance with the twofold cost per generation. Here we model an infinite diploid population where two autosomal loci determine, respectively, the reproductive mode, sexual versus asexual and the mating system, polygynous (costly sex) versus monogamous (assuming equal contribution of parents to offspring, i.e. non-costly sex). We show that alleles for costly sex can spread when non-costly sexual modes buffer the interaction between asexual and costly sexual strategies, even without twofold benefit of recombination with respect to asexuality. The three interacting strategies have intransitive fitness relationships leading to a rock–paper–scissors dynamics, so that alleles for costly sex cannot be eliminated by asexuals in most situations throughout the parameter space. Our results indicate that sexual lineages with variable mating systems can resist the invasion of asexuals and allow for long-term effects to accumulate, thus providing a solution to the persisting theoretical question of why sex was not displaced by asexuality along evolution.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.140383

Pintus, E., Uccheddu, S., Roed, K.H., Pérez-Gonzaléz, J., Carranza, J., Nieminen, M., Holand, O. Flexible mating tactics and associated reproductive effort during the rutting season in male reindeer (Rangifer tarandus, L. 1758), Current Zoology, 61 (5) 802–810

Polygynous males can change their mating tactics across their lifetime, but information is scarce on the flexibility of this trait within a given season and the relative costs and bene fits of using different tactics. Here, we monitored individuall y marked male reindeer Rangifer tarandus and classified their mating tactics as hare m-defense, sneaking, or mixed. The costs of the male reproductive effort were assessed using both direct (i.e. percentage of body mass lost) and indirect m easures (i.e. activity patterns such as feeding, standing, and walking), while mating group size and reproductive success were recorded as mating effort benefits. Our results show that reindeer males may switch between the harem-defense and sneaking tactics throughout the same breeding season, providing further support to the notion that reproductive tactics are flexible in ungulates. The costs and benefits of male mating effort vary according to the mating tactic, reaching the highest values in harem-holders and the lowest values in sneaking males. Moreover, males who switched between

the sneaking tactic and the harem-defence tactic tended to achieve higher mating success than males who consistently used the least costly tactic. Indeed, all harem-holders successfully sired offspring, whereas only two out of three mixed-tactic males sired one calf, and sneaking males did not sire any calves. In conclusion, our results show that reindeer males can modulate their mating efforts during the same breeding season by switching between the most costly harem-defense tactic and the least costly sneaking tactic, suggesting Individual solutions to the balance between reproductive effort and mating opportunities

https://doi.org/10.1093/czoolo/61.5.802

Torres-Porras J., Fernández-Llario, P., Carranza, J., Mateos, C. (2015). Conifer plantations negatively affect density of wild boars in Mediterranean ecosystem. Folia Zool. 64(1), 25-31

Several decades ago, large areas of the Iberian Peninsula were planted with allochthonous tree species for timber production among other reasons. This severe habitat transformation is likely to affect a large spectrum of the biodiversity in the area. The wild boar Sus scrofa is a widely distributed large mammal, for which population density can be estimated on the basis of hunting results relative to effort in each area. Our goal was to analyze the influence of pine plantations on the relative density of this species in Southern Spain.

Based on data obtained from hunts, we found that the relative density of wild boar was negatively related to the relative area covered by pine trees. Our results support a negative effect of pine plantations on wild boar density and indicate that restoration and conservation of native oak forests can favour not only biodiversity but also the maintenance of wild boar population.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/278037350_Conifer_plantations_negatively_affect_density_of_wild_boars_in_Mediterranean_ecosystem

Pérez-González, J., Costa, V., Santos, P., Slate, J., Carranza, J., Fernández-Llario, P., Zsolnai, A., Monteiro, N.M., Anton, I., Buzgó, J., Varga, G., Beja-Pereira, A. (2014). Males and females contribute unequally to offspring genetic diversity in the polygynandrous mating system of wild boar. PLoS ONE 9(12): e115394.

The maintenance of genetic diversity across generations depends on both the number of reproducing males and females. Variance in reproductive success, multiple paternity and litter size can all affect the relative contributions of male and female parents to genetic variation of progeny. The mating system of the wild boar (Sus scrofa) has been described as polygynous, although evidence of multiple paternity in litters has been found. Using 14 microsatellite markers, we evaluated the contribution of males and females to genetic variation in the next generation in independent wild boar populations from the Iberian Peninsula and Hungary. Genetic contributions of males and females were obtained by distinguishing the paternal and maternal genetic component inherited by the progeny. We found that the paternally inherited genetic component of progeny was more diverse than the maternally inherited component. Simulations showed that this finding might be due to a sampling bias. However, after controlling for the bias by fitting both the genetic diversity in the adult population and the number of reproductive individuals in the models, paternally inherited genotypes remained more diverse than those inherited maternally. Our results suggest new insights into how promiscuous mating systems can help maintain genetic variation.

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0115394&type=printable

Martín, J., Carranza, J., López, P., Alarcos, S., Pérez-González, J. (2014) A new sexual signal in rutting male red deer: age related chemical scent constituents in the belly black spot. Mammalian Biology 79, 362-368.

Rutting behaviour of red deer stags (Cervus elaphus) includes an extensive repertoire of visual and acoustic signals directed either to rival males or to females. As in other mammals, olfactory communication is expected to play a central role in these rutting interactions too, but this has rarely been investigated. Only during the rutting season, red deer males show a conspicuous black spot area throughout most of their underbelly produced by the impregnation of substances with a strong scent. Here, we examined the origin of these compounds and their potential role as chemical signals. By using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS), we identified 67 compounds in the hair from the belly black spot of red deer stags, mainly heterocyclic aromatic organic compounds, such as m-cresol, benzoic acid, cyclohexanecarboxylic acid and ethylphenol, but we also found steroids, such as cholesterol and androstane-3,17-dione, carboxylic acids and their esters between n-C₆ and n-C₂₂, alcohols, squalene and other minor compounds. Many of these compounds are found in the belly black spot but not in other hair areas, and may have originated from several sources, such as the urine or the sebaceous glands of the skin, which impregnated the belly. Moreover, we found differences in chemical profiles depending on age, with older males having higher proportions of benzoic acid and androstane-3,17-dione, but lower proportions of m-cresol. Because most of these compounds are strongly odoriferous, and appear related to male characteristics, our data indicate that scent from the hairs forming the black spot of the belly may be regarded as an overlooked new sexual chemical signal in red deer in the context of competition for mates during the rutting season.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1616504714000664

Fernández-García, J. L., Carranza, J., Martínez, J. G., Randi, E. (2014). Mitochondrial D-loop phylogeny signals two native Iberian red deer (Cervus elaphus) Lineages genetically different to Western and Eastern European red deer and infers human-mediated translocations. Biodivers. Conserv. 23, 537-554. DOI 10.1007/s10531-013-0585-2

Native red deer ( Cervus elaphus) in Western Europe might at least partially derive from refugial populations which survived in the Iberian Peninsula during the last glacial maximum, and that expanded northwards at the onset of the Holocene. However, the phylogeny and genetic structure of red deer populations in the Iberian Peninsula are still poorly known. This study was planned, in a first step, to reconstruct the phylogenetic relationship of the main red deer populations extant in Spain by the analyses of an extensive sample of mitochondrial DNA sequences. Results indicate that sequences from these populations can be assigned to one of two deeply divergent mtDNA lineages (South-Western and Central-Eastern) with molecular divergence nearby the 2 %. In each lineage were respectively found sixteen and thirteen different haplotypes. It was evidenced that they may be allopatrically distributed in Spain with 86.6 % sequences of the South-Western lineage at the South-Western side and the 65 % sequences of Central-Eastern lineage in the Central-Eastern side. These mitochondrial lineages might have originated in two distinct refugial populations during the last glacial maximum. Genetic data also reveal instances of admixture between native populations and translocated European red deer, which belong to at least three distinct subspecies.

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs10531-013-0585-2.pdf

Ver:

Carranza, J. & Martínez, J.G. (2014) Erratum to: Mitochondrial D-loop phylogeny signals two native Iberian red deer (Cervus elaphus) Lineages genetically different to Western and Eastern European red deer and infers human-mediated translocations Biodivers. Conserv. 23, 555-557. DOI 10.1007/s10531-014-0623-8

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10531-014-0623-8

Risco, D., Fernández-Llario, P., García-Jiménez, W.L., Gonçalves, P., Cuesta, J.M., Martínez, R., Sanz, C., Sequeda, M., Gómez, l., Carranza, J., Hermoso de Mendoza, J. (2013). Influence of Porcine Circovirus Type 2 Infections on Bovine Tuberculosis in Wild Boar Populations. Transbound. Emerg. Dis. 60(S1), 121–127. DOI: 10.1111/tbed.12112

The wild boar is an important reservoir of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in south-western Spain. Some risk factors such as wild boar density or age have been associated with the presence of high prevalences of bTB in wild boar. However, the influence of other risk factors such as co-infections with other pathogens has not yet been studied. This work aims to assess the influence of porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV-2) infection on bTB prevalence and bTB lesional patterns observed in wild boar. The presence of bTB-like lesions was evaluated in 551 hunted wild boar from 11 different game estates in south-western Spain, with a known history of bTB. Tuberculosis prevalences in each estate were calculated based on the percentage of animals found with bTB-like lesions. The percentage of animals with generalized bTB lesional patterns (bTB lesions in more than one organ) was also assessed. The prevalence of PCV-2 was studied in each estate using a specific PCR assay. The relationship between PCV-2 and bTB prevalences and between PCV-2 infections and the presence of generalized lesional patterns in wild boar were analysed. A statistical relationship between the prevalences of bTB and PCV-2 was found, with bTB prevalences being higher in estates where prevalences of PCV-2 were high. On the other hand, animals infected with PCV-2 were more likely to develop a generalized lesional pattern. Porcine circovirus type 2 prevalences seem to be associated with prevalences of bTB in wild boar. PCV-2 infection may aggravate the development and severity of bTB, favouring the presence of generalized lesional patterns and raising the risk of contagion in these estates. The implementation of sanitary measures that focus on the control of PCV-2 infection may be necessary as a preliminary measure in bTB control programmes for wild boar.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/tbed.12112