Castillo, L., Fernández–Llario, P., Carranza-Almansa, J., Bermejo F., Hermoso de Mendoza, J.(2010) First Seropositive Cases of Coxiella burnetii in Red Deer Populations in the Southwest Iberian Peninsula.  Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine 41(3), 468-473

The aim of this study was to evaluate the seroprevalence of Coxiella burnetii in different red deer populations and to investigate role of red deer densities, livestock, and habitat on seroprevalence. The serosurvey revealed 5 positive cases out of 137 sera (3.64%) that occurred in two of the three study areas. This study documents the first cases of Coxiella burnetii in red deer in the southwest Iberian peninsula. A relationship between deer density and Coxiella seroprevalence was not found. Results revealed that indirect transmission through ticks between livestock and red deer might be associated with higher prevalence. The timing of shelter area usage may influence the contact between ticks and red deer by favoring transmission. Coxiella burnetii in red deer may be associated with infertility or early abortions with reabsorption. Further research is needed to evaluate its epidemiology and effect on the disease dynamics of red deer in the southwest Iberian peninsula.

https://doi.org/10.1638/2009-0225.1

Pérez-González, J., Barbosa, A. M., Carranza, J., Torres-Porras, J. (2010). Relative effect of food supplementation and natural resources on hind distribution in a Mediterranean ecosystem. Journal of Wildlife Management. 74, 1701-1708.

Supplementary feeding is a widespread game management practice in several red deer (Cervus elaphus) populations, with important potential consequences on the biology of this species. In Mediterranean ecosystems food supplementation occurs in the rutting period, when it may change mating system characteristics. We studied the role of food supplementation relative to natural resources in the spatial distribution, aggregation, and mean harem size of females in Iberian red deer (Cervus elaphus hispanicus) during the rut. We studied 30 red deer populations of southwestern Spain, 63% of which experienced supplementary feeding. Using multivariate spatial analyses we found that food supplementation affected distribution of females in 95% of the populations in which it occurred. Green meadows present during the mating season acted as an important natural resource influencing female distribution. Additionally, the level of female aggregation and mean harem size were significantly higher in those populations in which food supplementation determined female distribution than in populations in which female distribution did not depend on supplementary feeding. Because female aggregation and mean harem size are key elements in sexual selection, supplementary feeding may constitute an important anthropogenic element with potential evolutionary implications for populations of Iberian red deer.

https://wildlife.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.2193/2009-130

Pérez-González, J., Carranza, J., Torres-Porras, J., Fernández-García, J. L. (2010). Low heterozygosity at microsatellite markers in Iberian red deer with small antlers. Journal of Heredity. 101, 553-561.

Deer antlers are costly structures subjected to directional sexual selection that may be sensitive to heterozygosity. However, a relationship between heterozygosity and antler development has only been found for select protein-coding loci and MHC genes in one deer species (the white-tailed deer Odocoileus virginianus). Here, we study the relationship between multilocus heterozygosity at 11 microsatellite markers and antler size (AS) in a sample of 367 Iberian red deer males (Cervus elaphus hispanicus) from two study areas with different ecological and genetic conditions. We found that males with very small antlers (10% of the sampled individuals with the lowest values of AS) had lower levels of heterozygosity than those with bigger antlers (significant effect in an analysis of variance, P 5 0.011). This relationship was noticeable mainly in situations of low genetic diversity, where the differences in heterozygosity between groups of males were greater. Finally, we conducted analyses to address the hypotheses proposed by the heterozygosity–fitness correlation, and we found the local effect as the most likely hypothesis. Our findings reveal an expected but not previously detected association between low heterozygosity and reduced AS, with implications for red deer evolution and management.

https://academic.oup.com/jhered/article/101/5/553/871567

Barbosa, A.M. & Carranza, J. (2010). Lack of intraspecific variation in two Y-chromosomal introns of Cervus elaphus (Cetartiodactyla: Cervidae), and a new sex marker for this species. Journal of Negative Results. 7, 1-4.

Intra-specific Y-chromosomal sequence variation is useful for analysing the male contribution to a species’ spatial genetic structure. In red deer (Cervus elaphus) this is especially relevant, because geographic dispersal and game translocations occur mainly through the males. However, Y-chromosomal markers for wild organisms are scarce and frequently non-polymorphic within species. We assessed the intra-specific variation of two Y-chromosomal introns in red deer, one in the DBY (or DDX3Y) gene and the other in the UBE1Y gene. The introns were amplified using previously published exonic primers and directly sequenced in individuals of five red deer subspecies from across Eurasia. However, no nucleotide polymorphism was observed, which rebuts the usefulness of these introns for studies of red deer phylogeography and on illegal transport of red deer within this region. Male-based phylogeographic studies should thus be focused on other Y-chromosomal markers for this species.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/256304968_Lack_of_geographic_variation_in_Y-chromosomal_introns_of_red_deer_Cervus_elaphus

Pérez-González, J., Carranza, J., Polo, V. (2010). Measuring female aggregation in ungulate mating system research: a red deer case study. Animal Behaviour. 37, 301-310.

• Context. Mating systems are of central importance to the operation of sexual selection, with consequences for evolution and for the maintenance of genetic diversity. Female aggregation is one of the most important elements of mating systems because female distribution can influence the degree of polygyny. Measuring female aggregation requires finding the scale for the distribution pattern. Several spatial methods can be used to determine the scale of a point pattern; however, only one of them has been applied to mating-system research.
• Aims. Here, we assess three different spatial methods to determine the best one in finding the scale of female distribution for female-aggregation measures in a mating-system context.
• Methods. We describe and compare the spatial methods by applying them to 30 Iberian red deer (Cervus elaphus hispanicus) populations. We use spatial analyses for point patterns.
• Key results. Ripley’s K analysis was found to be the best method for determining the scale of female distribution and for quantifying female-aggregation parameters in our populations.
• Conclusions. Ripley’s K analysis, a distance method based on circles centred in individuals and that is widely used in ecological studies, allows the estimation of female aggregation and, hence, it can be used to measure sexual selection.
• Implications. This work describes the use of a distance method that can be applied to mating-system research (at least for ungulate populations) to obtain models with behavioural and evolutionary implications

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/240505826_Measuring_female_aggregation_in_ungulate_mating-system_research_A_red_deer_case_study

Sánchez Prieto, C., Carranza, J., Pérez-González, J., Alarcos, S., Mateos, C. (2010). Effects of small barriers on habitat use by red deer: implications for conservation practices. Journal for Nature Conservation. 18, 196-201

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1617138109000715

Carranza, J. (2010). Sexual selection and the evolution of evolutionary theories. Animal Behaviour 79: e5-e6.

Evolutionary theory has experienced big changes since Darwin published his book on the origin of species (Darwin 1859). New elements such as the development of genetic theory (Fisher 1930; Wright 1931; Haldane 1932; Dobzhansky 1937 ), recognition of selection at the level of genes (Williams 1966) and kin selection (Hamilton 1964) have been incorporated to refine and adapt the new natural selection theory. As a consequence, when we now use the term natural selection in an academic context we refer to processes resulting in changes in gene frequencies rather than ‘preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life’ or ‘survival of the fittest’.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/248591949_Sexual_selection_and_the_evolution_of_evolutionary_theories

Barbosa, A.M., Fernández-García, J.L., Carranza, J. (2009). A new marker for rapid sex identification of red deer (Cervus elaphus). Hystrix It. J. Mamm. 20(2), 169-172

Un nuovo marcatore per l’identificazione rapida del sesso del cervo (Cervus elaphus ) Il cervo ( Cervus elaphus ) è una specie cacciabile economicamente importante che risente di alcuni problemi di conservazione. La conoscenza di parametri di popolazione come il rapporto sessi è importante per la sua gestione e conservazione. In questo studio, utilizzando condizioni poco specifiche per l’amplificazione di un frammento del cromosoma Y già descritto in precedenza, descriviamo un metodo che permette una rapida e corretta identificazione del sesso in questa specie, producendo due amplicons diversi nei maschi e uno nelle femmine. I due frammenti, diversi per il peso molecolare, sono facilmente separabili mediante elettroforesi in gel di agarosio, permettendo l’identificazione del sesso con un unico test in campioni biologici come carcasse, embrioni recuperati da femmine abbattute e, forse, peli o escrementi (se la qualità del DNA è accettabile). Questo metodo può essere di aiuto in studi sul rapporto sessi degli embrioni, sulla mortalità associata al sesso o sul rapporto sessi in popolazioni selvatiche o semi-selvatiche, con ricadute applicative per le analisi demografiche, la gestione venatoria e la conservazione

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/50889716_A_new_marker_for_rapid_sex_identification_of_red_deer_Cervus_elaphus

Carranza , J., Pérez-González, J., Mateos, C., Fernández-García, J. L. (2009). Parents’ genetic dissimilarity and offspring sex in a polygynous mammal. Molecular Ecology 18, 4964-4973.

Offspring quality may benefit from genetic dissimilarity between parents. However, genetic dissimilarity may trade‐off with additive genetic benefits. We hypothesized that when sexual selection produces sex‐specific selective scenarios, the relative benefits of additive genetic vs. dissimilarity may differ for sons and daughters. Here we study a sample of 666 red deer (Cervus elaphus) microsatellite genotypes, including males, females and their foetuses, from 20 wild populations in Spain (the main analyses are based on 241 different foetuses and 190 mother‐foetus pairs). We found that parental lineages were more dissimilar in daughters than in sons. On average, every mother was less related to her mate than to the sample of fathers in the population when producing daughters not sons. Male foetuses conceived early in the rutting season were much more inbred than any other foetuses. These differences maintained through gestation length, ruling out intrauterine mortality as a cause for the results, and indicating that the potential mechanism producing the association between parents’ dissimilarity and offspring sex should operate close to mating or conception time. Our findings highlight the relevance of considering the sex of offspring when studying genetic similarity between parents.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/j.1365-294X.2009.04401.x

Pérez-González, J. & Carranza, J. (2009). Female-biased dispersal under conditions of low male competition in a polygynous mammal. Molecular Ecology 18(22), 4617-4630.

Sex‐biased dispersal is a common phenomenon in birds and mammals. Competition for mates has been argued to be an important selective pressure favouring dispersal. Sexual differences in the level of intrasexual competition may produce asymmetries in the costs‐benefits balance of dispersal and philopatry for males and females, which may favour male‐biased dispersal in polygynous species such as most mammals. This being the case, condition‐dependent dispersal predicts that male‐bias should decrease if mating competition relaxes. We test this expectation for red deer, where male‐biased dispersal is the norm. In southwestern Spain, red deer populations located in nonfenced hunting estates presented altered structures with sex ratio strongly biased to females and high proportion of young males. As a consequence, mate competition in these populations was lower than in other, most typical red deer populations. We found that, under such conditions of altered population structure, dispersal was female‐biased rather than male‐biased. Additionally, mate competition positively related to male dispersal but negatively to female dispersal. Other factors such as resource competition, age of individuals and sex ratio were not related to male or female dispersal. Males may not disperse if intrasexual competition is low and then females may disperse as a response to male philopatry. We propose hypotheses related to female mate choice to explain female dispersal under male philopatry. The shift of the sex‐biased dispersal pattern along the gradient of mate competition highlights its condition‐dependence as well as the interaction between male and female dispersal in the evolution of sex‐biased dispersal.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/j.1365-294X.2009.04386.x