Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Molecular assessment of translocation and management of an endangered subspecies of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus)

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Conservation Genetics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Translocations are an effectual management strategy for the reestablishment and reconnection of endangered populations and species. However, knowledge about the evolution and ecology of the populations and species of interest are critical so that informed decisions can be made about source populations and reestablishment areas. We employed 614 base pairs of the mitochondrial control region and 15 microsatellite loci to investigate genetic variation, contemporary connectivity, and interspecific hybridization in the two remaining populations of the endangered Columbian white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus leucurus) through comparisons with the closest subspecies, O. v. ochrourus. Our data revealed the dubious taxonomic status of O. v. leucurus, and that O. virginianus in the Pacific Northwest originated from a single historic gene pool. Further the results identified that populations are currently genetically isolated and depauperate, and uncovered historic introgression with O. hemionus columbianus. These results suggest that translocations are a viable approach for reestablishing populations throughout the historic range to increase genetic diversity in the fragmented populations. Despite the taxonomic ambiguity, our study revealed the presence of unique genetic variation within each population which supports ongoing conservation efforts.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Allee WC, Park O, Emerson AE, Park T, Schmidt KP (1949) Principles of animal ecology. WB Saunders Co. Ltd, Philadelphia

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson JD, Honeycutt RL, Gonzales RA, Gee KL, Skow LC, Gallagher RL, Honeycutt DA, DeYoung RW (2002) Development of microsatellite DNA markers for the automated genetic characterization of white-tailed deer populations. J Wildl Manage 66:67–74

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Avise J, Ball R (1990) Principles of genealogical concordance in species concepts and biological taxonomy. In: Futuyma D, Antonovics J (eds) Oxford surveys in evolutionary biology. Oxford University Press, New York, pp 45–67

    Google Scholar 

  • Bailey V (1936) The mammals and life zones of Oregon. North Am Fauna 55:1–348

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ballinger S, Blankenship L, Bickham J, Carr S (1992) Allozyme and mitochondrial DNA analysis of a hybrid zone between white-tailed deer and mule deer (Odocoileus) in west texas. Biochem Genet 30:1–11

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bandelt HJ, Forster P, Röhl A (1999) Median-joining networks for inferring intraspecific phylogenies. Mol Biol Evol 16:37–48

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bouzat J, Johnson J, Toepfer J, Simpson S, Esker T, Westemeier R (2009) Beyond the beneficial effects of translocations as an effective tool for the genetic restoration of isolated populations. Conserv Genet 10:191–201

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brookshier J (2004) Managment recommendations for washington’s priority species: volume V mammals. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Olympia, pp 1–9 (ed. Wildlife WDoFa)

    Google Scholar 

  • Carr SM, Ballinger SW, Derr JN, Blankenship LH, Bickham JW (1986) Mitochondrial DNA analysis of hybridization between sympatric white-tailed deer and mule deer in west Texas. Proc Natl Acad Sci 83:9576–9580

    Article  PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cathey JC, Bickham JW, Patton JC (1998) Introgressive hybridization and nonconcordant evolutionary history of maternal and paternal lineages in North American deer. Evolution 52:1224–1229

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cowan IM (1936) Distribution and variation in deer (genus Odocoileus) of the Pacific Coastal Region of North America. California Fish and Game 22:155–246

    Google Scholar 

  • Crandall KA, Bininda-Emonds ORP, Mace GM, Wayne RK (2000) Considering evolutionary processes in conservation biology. Trends Ecol Evol 15:290–295

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Crawford NG (2010) SMOGD: software for the measurement of genetic diversity. Molecular Ecology Resources 10:556–557

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cronin MA (1991) Mitochondrial and nuclear genetic relationships of deer (Odocoileus spp.) in western North America. Can J Zool 69:1270–1279

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cronin MA (1992) Intraspecific variation in mitochondrial DNA of North American cervids. J Mammal 73:70–82

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cronin MA (2006) A proposal to eliminate redundant terminology for intra-species groups. Wildl Soc Bull 34:237–241

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cronin MA, Vyse ER, Cameron DG (1988) Genetic relationships between mule deer and white-tailed deer in Montana. J Wildl Manage 52:320–328

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cullingham CI, Merrill EH, Pybus MJ, Bollinger TK, Wilson GA, Coltman DW (2011) Broad and fine-scale genetic analysis of white-tailed deer populations: estimating the relative risk of chronic wasting disease spread. Evol Appl 4:116–131

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Derr JN, Hale DW, Ellsworth DL, Bickham JW (1991) Fertility in an F1 male hybrid of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) × mule deer (O. hemionus). J Reprod Fertil 93:111–117

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Deyoung RW, Demarais S, Honeycutt RL, Rooney AP, Gonzales RA, Gee KL (2003) Genetic consequences of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) restoration in Mississippi. Mol Ecol 12:3237–3252

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Douglas D (1829) Observations of two undescribed species of North American Mammalia. Zool J 4:330–332

    Google Scholar 

  • Dubois A (2003) The relationships between taxonomy and conservation biology in the century of extinctions. Comptes Rendus Biologies 326(supplement 1):9–21

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Edmands S (2007) Between a rock and a hard place: evaluating the relative risks of inbreeding and outbreeding for conservation and management. Mol Ecol 16:463–475

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Excoffier L, Lischer HEL (2010) Arlequin suite ver 3.5: a new series of programs to perform population genetics analyses under Linux and Windows. Mol Ecol Resour 10:564–567

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Felsenstein J (1985) Confidence limits on phylogenies: an approach using the bootstrap. Evolution 39:783–791

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frankham R, Ballou JD, Eldridge MD, Lacy RC, Ralls K, Dudash MR, Fenster CB (2011) Predicting the probability of outbreeding depression. Conserv Biol 25:465–475

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Galindo-Leal C, Weber M (1994) Translocation of deer subspecies: reproductive implications. Wildl Soc Bull 22:117–120

    Google Scholar 

  • Gavin TA (1978) Status of the Columbian white-tailed deer Odocoileus virginianus leucurus: some quantitative uses of biogeographic data. In: Holloway CW (ed) Threatened deer. IUCN, Morges, Switzerland, pp 185–202

    Google Scholar 

  • Gavin TA (1984) Pacific Northwest. In: Halls LK (ed) White-tailed deer ecology and management. Stackpole Books, Harrisburg, PA, pp 487–496

    Google Scholar 

  • Gavin TA, May B (1988) Taxonomic status and genetic purity of Columbian white-tailed deer. J Wildl Manage 52:1–10

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glez-Peña D, Gómez-Blanco D, Reboiro-Jato M, Fdez-Riverola F, Posada D (2010) ALTER: program-oriented conversion of DNA and protein alignments. Nucleic Acids Res 38:W14–W18

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Haig SM, Beever EA, Chambers SM, Draheim HM, Dugger BD, Dunham S, Elliott-Smith E, Fontaine JB, Kesler DC, Knaus BJ, Lopes IF, Loschl P, Mullins TD, Sheffield LM (2006) Taxonomic considerations in listing subspecies under the U.S. endangered species act. Conserv Biol 20:1584–1594

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hedrick P, Fredrickson R (2010) Genetic rescue guidelines with examples from Mexican wolves and Florida panthers. Conserv Genet 11:615–626

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hedrick PW, Kim TJ, Parker KM (2001) Parasite resistance and genetic variation in the endangered Gila topminnow. Anim Conserv 4:103–109

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • IUCN (1987) IUCN position statement on translocation of living organisms: introductions, re-introductions and re-stocking. https://portals.iucn.org/library/node/6507. Accessed 1 Feb 2013

  • Jon MJ, Witham JH (1990) Post-translocation survival and movements of metropolitan white-tailed deer. Wildl Soc Bull 18:434–441

    Google Scholar 

  • Jost L (2008) GST and its relatives do not measure differentiation. Mol Ecol 17:4015–4026

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kalinowski ST (2005) hp-rare 1.0: a computer program for performing rarefaction on measures of allelic richness. Mol Ecol Notes 5:187–189

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Klingenberg CP, Gidaszewski NA (2010) Testing and quantifying phylogenetic signals and homoplasy in morphometric data. Syst Biol 59:245–261

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lesica P, Allendorf FW (1995) When are peripheral populations valuable for conservation? Conserv Biol 9:753–760

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Librado P, Rozas J (2009) DNASP v5: a software for comprehensive analysis of DNA polymorphism data. Bioinformatics 25:1451–1452

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lingle S (1993) Escape gaits of white-tailed deer, mule deer, and their hybrids: body configuration, biomechanics, and function. Can J Zool 71:708–724

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Livingston SD (1987) Prehistoric biogeography of white-tailed deer in Washington and Oregon. J Wildl Manage 51:649–654

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lodé T, Guiral G, Peltier D (2005) European mink–polecat hybridization events: hazards from natural process? J Hered 96:89–96

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lopez S, Rousset F, Shaw FH, Shaw RG, Ronce O (2009) Joint effects of inbreeding and local adaptation on the evolution of genetic load after fragmentation. Conserv Biol 23:1618–1627

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mayr E (1963) Animal species and evolution. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Moritz C (1994) Defining ‘evolutionarily significant units’ for conservation. Trends Ecol Evol 9:373–375

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • O’Brien SJ, Mayr E (1991) Bureaucratic mischief: recognizing endangered species and subspecies. Science (Washington) 251:1187–1188

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peakall R, Smouse PE (2006) GENALEX 6: genetic analysis in Excel. Population genetic software for teaching and research. Mol Ecol Notes 6:288–295

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peek JM (1984) Northern rocky mountains. In: Halls LK (ed) White-tailed deer ecology and management. Stackpole Books, Harrisburg, PA, pp 497–512

    Google Scholar 

  • Pimentel RA, Riggins R (1987) The nature of cladistic data. Cladistics 3:201–209

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Posada D (2008) jMODELTEST: phylogenetic model averaging. Mol Biol Evol 25:1253–1256

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Posada D, Crandall KA (2001) Intraspecific gene genealogies: trees grafting into networks. Trends Ecol Evol 16:37–45

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pritchard JK, Stephens M, Donnelly P (2000) Inference of population structure using multilocus genotype data. Genetics 155:945–959

    PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pritchard J, Wen X, Falush D (2007) Documentation for structure software: version 2.2. Department of Human Genetics, University of Chicago, Department of Statistics, University of Oxford

  • Purdue JR, Smith MH, Patton JC (2000) Female philopatry and extreme spatial genetic heterogeneity in white-tailed deer. J Mammal 81:179–185

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Putman R, Flueck WT (2011) Intraspecific variation in biology and ecology of deer: magnitude and causation. Animal Production Science 51:277–291

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rhymer JM, Simberloff D (1996) Extinction by hybridization and introgression. Ann Rev Ecol Systemat 27:83–109

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rice WR (1989) Analyzing tables of statistical tests. Evolution 43:223–225

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scheffer VB (1940) A newly located herd of Pacific white-tailed deer. J Mammal 21:271–282

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sgrò CM, Lowe AJ, Hoffmann AA (2011) Building evolutionary resilience for conserving biodiversity under climate change. Evol Appl 4:326–337

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Shaffer ML (1981) Minimum population sizes for species conservation. Bioscience 31:131–134

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith WP (1985) Current geographic distribution and abundance of Columbian white-tailed deer, Odocoileus virginianus leucurus (Douglas). Northwest Sci 59:243–251

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith WP, Carraway LN, Gavin TA (2003) Cranial variation in Columbian white-tailed deer populations: implications for taxonomy and restoration. Proc Biol Soc Wash 116:1–15

    Google Scholar 

  • Soltis PS, Gitzendanner MA (1999) Molecular systematics and the conservation of rare species. Conserv Biol 13:471–483

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spielman D, Brook B, Briscoe D, Frankham R (2004) Does inbreeding and loss of genetic diversity decrease disease resistance? Conserv Genet 5:439–448

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Storfer A (1999) Gene flow and endangered species translocations: a topic revisited. Biol Conserv 87:173–180

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Suring LH, Vohs PA Jr (1979) Habitat use by Columbian white-tailed deer. J Wildl Manage 43:610–619

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Swofford DL (2003) PAUP*: phylogenetic analysis using parsimony, version 4.0 b10

  • van Oosterhout C, Hutchinson WF, Wills DPM, Shipley P (2004) Micro-Checker: software for identifying and correcting genotyping errors in microsatellite data. Mol Ecol Notes 4:535–538

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vergeer P, Sonderen E, Ouborg NJ (2004) Introduction strategies put to the test: local adaptation versus heterosis. Conserv Biol 18:812–821

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Waples RS, Gaggiotti O (2006) What is a population? An empirical evaluation of some genetic methods for identifying the number of gene pools and their degree of connectivity. Mol Ecol 15:1419–1439

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Weeks AR, Sgro CM, Young AG, Frankham R, Mitchell NJ, Miller KA, Byrne M, Coates DJ, Eldridge MDB, Sunnucks P, Breed MF, James EA, Hoffmann AA (2011) Assessing the benefits and risks of translocations in changing environments: a genetic perspective. Evol Appl 4:709–725

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Weir BS, Cockerham CC (1984) Estimating F-statistics for the analysis of population structure. Evolution 38:1358–1370

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson EO, Brown WL Jr (1953) The subspecies concept and its taxonomic application. Syst Zool 2:97–111

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zink RM (2004) The role of subspecies in obscuring avian biological diversity and misleading conservation policy. Proc R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 271:561–564

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Shannon Wills and the Cowlitz Indian Tribe for samples, support, and consultation. At the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife we thank Hansel Hayden, Nick Leonetti, Martha Albritten, Leonard Erickson, and Richard Green for samples and funding. We also thank Kurt VerCauteren, Scott Hygnstrom of the United States Department of Agriculture National Wildlife Research Center, and Kenneth Warheit of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife for samples. Brett Coghlan, Julia Figueroa, Doreen Griffin, and Melissa Neubaum all contributed to the lab work. We would also like to exress our gratitude to two anonymous reviewers as they greatly improved this manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. USDA/APHIS/WS National Wildlife Research Center, 4101 Laporte Ave., Fort Collins, CO, 80521, USA

    Matthew W. Hopken & Antoinette J. Piaggio

  2. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, 2900 Northwest Stewart Parkway, Roseburg, OR, 97471, USA

    Tod M. Lum

  3. Julia Butler Hansen National Wildlife Refuge, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, P.O. Box 566, Cathlamet, WA, 98612, USA

    Paul M. Meyers

Authors
  1. Matthew W. Hopken
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Tod M. Lum
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Paul M. Meyers
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Antoinette J. Piaggio
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Matthew W. Hopken.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 (DOCX 67 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Hopken, M.W., Lum, T.M., Meyers, P.M. et al. Molecular assessment of translocation and management of an endangered subspecies of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus). Conserv Genet 16, 635–647 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10592-014-0689-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10592-014-0689-6

Keywords

Search

Navigation