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Resource selection and space use are important aspects of an animal's ecology and understanding these behaviors is necessary for proper wildlife management. We used mixed‐effect integrated step‐selection models to evaluate seasonal variation in resource selection between male and female elk (Cervus canadensis) and diel periods in central Pennsylvania, USA. Resource selection varied seasonally, between sexes, and across diel periods. These results demonstrate strong seasonal sexual segregation in resource use, and movements between habitats throughout the day, highlighting the dynamic nature of resource selection by elk and underscoring the importance of considering sexual variation at multiple temporal scales when designing ungulate management strategies. Finally, we developed habitat suitability maps for male and female elk in the Pennsylvania Elk Management Area. Wildlife ecologists and managers must consider multiple sources of variation in habitat use and resource selection, particularly for large mobile species such as elk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Today, when forensic experts talk about quantifiable hereditary traits, they do not just depend on the assessment and examination of DNA profiles but also relate them to the population structures. The use of high-throughput molecular marker technologies and advanced statistical and software tools have improved the accuracy of human genetic diversity analysis in many populations with limited time and resources. The present study aimed to investigate the genomic diversity in Gujarat’s Rabari population, using 20 autosomal genetic markers. Numerous bio-statistical software programs are available for the interpretation of population data in forensics. These statistics deal with the measurement of uncertainty and also provides a probability of a random match. The present paper aims to provide a practical guide to the analysis of population genetics data. Three statistical software packages named Cervus, Genepop, and Fstat are compared and contrasted. The comparison is performed on the profiles obtained from fifty unrelated blood samples of healthy male individuals. DNA was extracted using the organic extraction method, 20 autosomal STR loci were amplified using PowerPlex 21 kit (Promega, Madison, WI, USA) and detected on 3100 Genetic Analyser (Life Technologies Corporation, Carlsbad, CA, USA). Results A total of 170 alleles were observed in the Rabari Tribe of Gujarat population, and allele frequencies ranged from 0.010 to 0.480. The highest allele frequency detected was 0.480 for allele 9 at locus TH01. Based on heterozygosity and the polymorphism information content, FGA may be considered as the most informative markers. Both the combined power of discrimination (CPD) and the combined power of exclusion (CPE) for the 20 analyzed loci were higher than 0.999999. The combined match probability (CPM) for all 20 loci was 2.5 × 10−22. Conclusions With respect to the results, the 20 STR loci are highly polymorphic and discriminating in the Gujarat population and could be used for forensic practice and population genetics studies. However, Fstat demonstrated better genetic software for analysis of the demographic structure of a specific or set of populations.

Pedigrees have a long history in classical genetics, agronomics, evolutionary ecology, and ex situ captive breeding. Use of molecular techniques has expanded the variety of species for which pedigrees can be constructed. However, molecular pedigrees almost exclusively consider microsatellite loci, despite advances in high-throughput sequencing allowing development of genomic marker sets in nearly any organism. Here we generate a novel set of genomic SNPs derived from ddRAD sequencing in two populations of Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii) and describe the diversity and differentiation between them. We then compare and contrast parentage assignment rates and accuracy in one population that has been the subject of long-term monitoring. Specifically, we consider pedigrees constructed using two sets of markers (microsatellites and SNPs), two pedigree construction software (CERVUS than Sequoia), as well as varying the groupings of candidate parents (either all individuals simultaneously, only individuals born before a focal year, or only individuals known to have survived to a focal year). ddRAD sequencing returned between 1568 and 3240 loci depending on whether both populations were considered simultaneously or individually. Parentage assignment rates were always higher using CERVUS than Sequoia, with the latter at times either not assigning parentage or creating "inferred parents". In all cases, "polarizing" the datasets (e.g., including year of birth) significantly improved assignments. This represents one of the first direct comparisons of pedigree construction using different markers in the same set of individuals, and the SNPs described here will be a resource for continued pedigree construction, and future research in Weddell seals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study has been conducted on 91 red deer specimens (Cervus elaphus L.) from two regions of the Carpathians, respectively the area of the Curvature Carpathians and the Făgăraș Massif. The skulls and trophies analyzed belong from specimens harvested during the 2017-2021 hunting season, collections from the Faculty of Silviculture and Forest Engineering, Posada Hunting Museum and personal collections of hunters. The sampling of the analyzed material has taken into account provenance and age, resulting in four distinct groups: two groups from the Curvature Carpathians, respectively Group I with 33 specimens aged between 7 and 9 years old, Group II with 32 specimens aged from 10 years and older and two groups from the Făgăraș Massif, respectively Group I with 21 specimens aged between 7 and 9 years old, Group II with 5 specimens aged from 10 years and older. Eleven trophy variables and 28 cranial variables belong to the four cranial areas, 13 on the dorsal face, 4 on the lateral face, 8 on the ventral face and 3 on the occipital face were selected for analysis. The statistical analysis addressed refers to descriptive and multivariate techniques, proposing the comparison of cranial and trophy elements from two different areas of the Carpathians, regarding habitat and altitude and supporting the existence of important variations that may generate certain ecotypes within the Romanian deer population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Today, when forensic experts talk about quantifiable hereditary traits, they do not just depend on the assessment and examination of DNA profiles but also relate them to the population structures. The use of high-throughput molecular marker technologies and advanced statistical and software tools have improved the accuracy of human genetic diversity analysis in many populations with limited time and resources. The present study aimed to investigate the genomic diversity in Gujarat's Rabari population, using 20 autosomal genetic markers. Numerous bio-statistical software programs are available for the interpretation of population data in forensics. These statistics deal with the measurement of uncertainty and also provides a probability of a random match. The present paper aims to provide a practical guide to the analysis of population genetics data. Three statistical software packages named Cervus, Genepop, and Fstat are compared and contrasted. The comparison is performed on the profiles obtained from fifty unrelated blood samples of healthy male individuals. DNA was extracted using the organic extraction method, 20 autosomal STR loci were amplified using PowerPlex 21 kit (Promega, Madison, WI, USA) and detected on 3100 Genetic Analyser (Life Technologies Corporation, Carlsbad, CA, USA). Results: A total of 170 alleles were observed in the Rabari Tribe of Gujarat population, and allele frequencies ranged from 0.010 to 0.480. The highest allele frequency detected was 0.480 for allele 9 at locus TH01. Based on heterozygosity and the polymorphism information content, FGA may be considered as the most informative markers. Both the combined power of discrimination (CPD) and the combined power of exclusion (CPE) for the 20 analyzed loci were higher than 0.999999. The combined match probability (CPM) for all 20 loci was 2.5 × 10−22. Conclusions: With respect to the results, the 20 STR loci are highly polymorphic and discriminating in the Gujarat population and could be used for forensic practice and population genetics studies. However, Fstat demonstrated better genetic software for analysis of the demographic structure of a specific or set of populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prosopis alba (Leguminosae) is an important species from ecologic and economical points of view in arid and semi-arid regions of Argentina. In several open-pollinated species, pollen contamination from off-orchard parents and selfing have been proven to reduce orchard seed quality. In 2002, the first clonal orchard of Prosopis alba was established in Fernández (Santiago del Estero, Argentina) with 12 trees phenotypically selected from a progeny trial, based on height, pod production per year and pod sweetness. The aim of this study was to evaluate the mating patterns and pollen contamination rate in the orchard using ten SSR markers and paternity analysis. All the clones together with the progeny of a single clone (open-pollinated seeds) were genotyped. Data was processed by two different methods based on likelihood and Bayesian approaches, respectively. A high consistency (89%) of results was observed between the two methods, and pollen contamination rate was estimated between 27% and 37%. The minimum number of different pollen donors per mother plant varied from three to five and selfing occurrence was low (

Zoonotic pathogens can harm human health and well‐being directly or by impacting livestock. Pathogens that spillover from wildlife can also impair conservation efforts if humans perceive wildlife as pests. Brucellosis, caused by the bacterium Brucella abortus, circulates in elk and bison herds of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and poses a risk to cattle and humans. Our goal was to understand the relative effects of climatic drivers, host demography and management control programmes on disease dynamics.Using >20 years of serologic, demographic and environmental data on brucellosis in elk, we built stochastic compartmental models to assess the influences of climate forcing, herd immunity, population turnover and management interventions on pathogen transmission. Data were collected at feedgrounds visited in winter by free‐ranging elk in Wyoming, USA.Snowpack, hypothesized as a driver of elk aggregation and thus brucellosis transmission, was strongly correlated across feedgrounds. We expected this variable to drive synchronized disease dynamics across herds. Instead, we demonstrate asynchronous epizootics driven by variation in demographic rates.We evaluated the effectiveness of test‐and‐slaughter of seropositive female elk at two feedgrounds. Test‐and‐slaughter temporarily reduced herd‐level seroprevalence but likely reduced herd immunity while removing few infectious individuals, resulting in subsequent outbreaks once the intervention ceased. We simulated an alternative strategy of removing seronegative female elk and found it would increase herd immunity, yielding fewer infections. We evaluated a second experimental treatment wherein feeding density was reduced at one feedground, but we found no evidence for an effect despite a decade of implementation.Synthesis and applications. Positive serostatus is often weakly correlated with infectiousness but is nevertheless used to make management decisions including lethal removal in wildlife disease systems. We show how this can have adverse consequences whereas efforts that maintain herd immunity can have longer‐term protective effects. Climatic drivers may not result in synchronous disease dynamics across populations unless vital rates are also similar because demographic factors have a large influence on disease patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reliably identifying the species occupying an area is an essential part of any wildlife conservation study or sustainable management plan, especially when dealing with a harvested species such as deer. Traditional deer monitoring techniques such as faecal standing crop or faecal accumulation rate estimates cannot accurately identify deer species based on pellet morphology where more than one deer species is present. This study presents real-time PCR assays for the identification of fallow deer (Dama dama), red deer (Cervus elaphus), and sika deer (Cervus nippon) species from pellet samples, and real-time PCR sex determining assays to amplify the ZFX and SRY gene of all three deer species. These assays successfully identified tissue and faecal pellets of all three species with no cross species amplification. Sex determination was successful from both tissue and faecal pellets samples, with the assays amplifying as little as 4 pg of nDNA, making them suitable for use with the often poor quality and low quantity DNA found in noninvasive samples. Application of these assays will provide reliable species presence and distribution data not possible with traditional methods as well as valuable information on sex ratios which can inform sustainable wildlife management and harvest strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Data on the prevalence of piroplasms in buffaloes and large game animal species are lacking from several central European countries. Therefore, to investigate the presence of Babesia/Theileria DNA in these hosts, 239 blood and 270 spleen samples were taken from cervids (red, fallow, and roe deer), as well as from water buffaloes, mouflons, and wild boars in southwestern Hungary, followed by DNA extraction and molecular analysis for piroplasms. All samples from buffaloes and wild boars were PCR negative. Based on spleen samples, the prevalence of piroplasms was significantly higher in red deer (41.7%) than in fallow deer (23.5%). Two genotypes of Theileria capreoli were identified, which showed significant association with their host species (i.e. genotype “capreoli-CE1” was exclusively found in roe deer, whereas red and fallow deer harbored only genotype “elaphi-CE1”). Genotype “elaphi-CE1” of T. capreoli was also detected in one mouflon. No Babesia spp. were identified. In conclusion, in the evaluated region, genotypes of T. capreoli show host-associations among cervids, and at least one of these genotypes may infect mouflons.

Prosopis alba (Leguminosae) is an important species from ecologic and economical points of view in arid and semi-arid regions of Argentina. In several open-pollinated species, pollen contamination from off-orchard parents and selfing have been proven to reduce orchard seed quality. In 2002, the first clonal orchard of Prosopis alba was established in Fernández (Santiago del Estero, Argentina) with 12 trees phenotypically selected from a progeny trial, based on height, pod production per year and pod sweetness. The aim of this study was to evaluate the mating patterns and pollen contamination rate in the orchard using ten SSR markers and paternity analysis. All the clones together with the progeny of a single clone (open-pollinated seeds) were genotyped. Data was processed by two different methods based on likelihood and Bayesian approaches, respectively. A high consistency (89%) of results was observed between the two methods, and pollen contamination rate was estimated between 27% and 37%. The minimum number of different pollen donors per mother plant varied from three to five and selfing occurrence was low (<1.6%). Based on the estimated status number (Ns = 4.4), the expected coancestry in the seed crop is equal to a Mendelian population with an effective size of 4-5 individuals. Genetic analyses are encouraged during the establishment and monitoring of trials in forest breeding and management programmes. It is strongly recommended to establish seed orchards in isolated areas and to guarantee equal representation of parental genotypes in the orchards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Previous investigations of phylogeny in Cervus recovered many clades without whole genomic support. Methods: In this study, the genetic diversity and phylogeny of 5 species (21 subspecies/populations from C. unicolor, C. albirostris, C. nippon, C. elaphus and C. eldii) in the genus Cervus were analyzed using reduced-representation genome sequencing. Results: A total of 197,543 SNPs were identified with an average sequencing depth of 16 x. A total of 21 SNP matrices for each subspecies/population and 1 matrix for individual analysis were constructed, respectively. Nucleotide diversity and heterozygosity analysis showed that all 21 subspecies/populations had different degrees of genetic diversity. C. eldii, C. unicolor and C. albirostris showed relatively high expected and observed heterozygosity, while observed heterozygosity in C. nippon was the lowest, indicating there was a certain degree of inbreeding rate in these subspecies/populations. Phylogenetic ML tree of all Cervus based on the 21 SNP matrices showed 5 robustly supported clades that clearly separate C. eldii, C. unicolor, C. albirostris, C. elaphus and C. nippon. Within C. elaphus clade, 4 subclades were well differentiated and statistically highly supported: C. elaphus (New Zealand), C. e. yarkandensis, C. c. canadensis and the other grouping the rest of C. canadensis from China. In the C. nippon clade, 2 well-distinct subclades corresponding to C. n. aplodontus and other C. nippon populations were separated. Phylogenetic reconstruction indicated that the first evolutionary event of the genus Cervus occurred approximately 7.4 millions of years ago. The split between C. elaphus and C. nippon could be estimated at around 3.6 millions of years ago. Phylogenetic ML tree of all samples based on individual SNP matrices, together with geographic distribution, have shown that there were 3 major subclades of C. elaphus and C. canadensis in China, namely C. e. yarkandensis (distributed in Tarim Basin), C. c. macneilli/C. c. kansuensis/C. c. alashanicus (distributed in middle west of China), and C. c. songaricus/C. c. sibiricus (distributed in northwest of China). Among them, C. e. yarkandensis was molecularly the most primitive subclade, with a differentiation dating back to 0.8–2.2 Myr ago. D statistical analysis showed that there was high probability of interspecific gene exchange between C. albirostris and C. eldii, C. albirostris and C. unicolor, C. nippon and C. unicolor, and there might be 2 migration events among 5 species in the genus Cervus. Conclusions: Our results provided new insight to the genetic diversity and phylogeny of Cervus deer. In view of the current status of these populations, their conservation category will need to be reassessed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High numbers of red deer Cervus elaphus pose a challenge for natural forests because of their high browsing intensities, especially during winter months. To mitigate this human-wildlife conflict, conservation management in central Europe involves luring red deer into fenced winter-feeding sites. The supplementary food provided in these so-called winter enclosures strongly differs from the natural diet of red deer. Dietary shifts, however, can lead to an imbalance of the gut microbiota, which could promote bacterial pathogens. Moreover, increased inter-individual contact in winter enclosures enhances the exchange of symbiotic but also pathogenic bacteria. In this study, we used high-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene in fecal samples of red deer inhabiting the Bavarian Forest National Park to investigate differences in the gut bacterial microbiota between individuals in winter enclosures and individuals that ranged freely in the forests in winter. We also investigated the occurrence of potential zoonotic bacterial pathogens in both study groups. Our results revealed that proportions of bacterial taxa, alpha- and beta-diversities, and relative abundances of amplicon sequence variants in the gut bacterial microbiota of the two groups differed. These differences were attributed to the enrichment of bacterial taxa involved in the digestion of the supplementary food and to different natural diets consumed before entering the winter enclosures. We detected sequences with high similarities to known red deer pathogens in both study groups, but their relative abundances were low, which suggests that the population of red deer of the Bavarian Forest National Park is healthy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research and management programs of wild animal populations often require intensive field actions, which make direct interventions on animals such as capture, immobilization and manipulation, frequently necessary. Such events, however, could induce a stress response causing physiological and behavioural alterations in the individuals. Knowing the impact of these practices in the post-release phase is of crucial importance when studying the spatial behaviour of wild species. Our study aimed to investigate the potential effect of narcosis and application of GPS collars on 17 red deer Cervus elaphus hinds living in a mountainous area in northern Apennine, Italy. We conducted the analysis at a temporal scale of 45 days after release, in order to assess the response of animals in terms of changes in movement rates, distance from the barycentre of their positions and distance from the capture sites. We then compared habitat selection between the period of disturbance and the following days. This work represents the first study of the behavioural responses of wild red deer to capture and handling procedures. We showed that these operations significantly affect the spatial behaviour of hinds by inducing a short-term increase in movement rates and by keeping the animals away from the centre of their activity, for a period no longer than 10 days. The habitat selection analysis remarked a tendency to escape from human disturbance, by avoiding hunting sites and anthropized locations in favour of forest cover. Red deer hinds thus, seem to cope with stressful events and disturbance by adopting a flight behaviour, which includes moving away from the capture area and seeking refuges. The differences highlighted between the 'stressful' period and the following one, showed that such modifications persist for a limited time frame and suggested that this capture method is unlikely to lead to permanent alterations of behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Based on geochronological data, it is shown that the formation of sediments of a 50-80 m terrace of Lake Baikal occurred during the Middle Pleistocene and its top part was formed in the Late Pleistocene. This conclusion is confirmed by polychronous burials of mammals related to the early and late mammoth faunal complexes: Canis, Mammuthus, Equus, Coelodonta, Cervus, Capreolus, and Bison. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rewilding is a novel approach to ecological restoration. Trophic rewilding in particular aims to reinstate ecological functions, especially trophic interactions, through the introduction of animals. We consider the potential for trophic rewilding to address biological invasions. In this broad review, we note some of the important conceptual and ethical foundations of rewilding, including a focus on ecosystem function rather than composition, reliance on animal agency, and an appeal to an ethic of coexistence. Second, we use theory from invasion biology to highlight pathways by which rewilding might prevent or mitigate the impacts of an invasion, including increasing biotic resistance. Third, we use a series of case studies to illustrate how reintroductions can mitigate the impacts of invasions. These include reintroductions and positive management of carnivores and herbivores including European pine martens (Martes martes), Eurasian otters (Lutra lutra), dingoes (Canis dingo), Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii) and tule elk (Cervus canadensis nannodes). Fourth, we consider the risk that rewilding may enable a biological invasion or aggravate its impacts. Lastly, we highlight lessons that rewilding science might take from invasion biology. This article is part of the theme issue 'Trophic rewilding: consequences for ecosystems under global change'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of high‐throughput sequencing technologies is dramatically increasing the use of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) across the field of genetics, but most parentage studies of wild populations still rely on microsatellites. We developed a bioinformatic pipeline for identifying SNP panels that are informative for parentage analysis from restriction site‐associated DNA sequencing (RADseq) data. This pipeline includes options for analysis with or without a reference genome, and provides methods to maximize genotyping accuracy and select sets of unlinked loci that have high statistical power. We test this pipeline on small populations of Mexican gray wolf and bighorn sheep, for which parentage analyses are expected to be challenging due to low genetic diversity and the presence of many closely related individuals. We compare the results of parentage analysis across SNP panels generated with or without the use of a reference genome, and between SNPs and microsatellites. For Mexican gray wolf, we conducted parentage analyses for 30 pups from a single cohort where samples were available from 64% of possible mothers and 53% of possible fathers, and the accuracy of parentage assignments could be estimated because true identities of parents were known a priori based on field data. For bighorn sheep, we conducted maternity analyses for 39 lambs from five cohorts where 77% of possible mothers were sampled, but true identities of parents were unknown. Analyses with and without a reference genome produced SNP panels with ≥95% parentage assignment accuracy for Mexican gray wolf, outperforming microsatellites at 78% accuracy. Maternity assignments were completely consistent across all SNP panels for the bighorn sheep, and were 74.4% consistent with assignments from microsatellites. Accuracy and consistency of parentage analysis were not reduced when using as few as 284 SNPs for Mexican gray wolf and 142 SNPs for bighorn sheep, indicating our pipeline can be used to develop SNP genotyping assays for parentage analysis with relatively small numbers of loci. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data on the prevalence of piroplasms in buffaloes and large game animal species are lacking from several central European countries. Therefore, to investigate the presence of Babesia/Theileria DNA in these hosts, 239 blood and 270 spleen samples were taken from cervids (red, fallow, and roe deer), as well as from water buffaloes, mouflons, and wild boars in southwestern Hungary, followed by DNA extraction and molecular analysis for piroplasms. All samples from buffaloes and wild boars were PCR negative. Based on spleen samples, the prevalence of piroplasms was significantly higher in red deer (41.7%) than in fallow deer (23.5%). Two genotypes of Theileria capreoli were identified, which showed significant association with their host species (i.e. genotype "capreoli-CE1" was exclusively found in roe deer, whereas red and fallow deer harbored only genotype "elaphi-CE1"). Genotype "elaphi-CE1" of T. capreoli was also detected in one mouflon. No Babesia spp. were identified. In conclusion, in the evaluated region, genotypes of T. capreoli show host-associations among cervids, and at least one of these genotypes may infect mouflons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cervus albirostris (white-lipped deer) is an endemic species in China. As the name implies, C. albirostris has a characteristic pure white marking around their mouth and on the underside of the throat. The animal is a typical alpine species normally living at the height of 3500-4300 m. In this study, by pyrosequencing the 16S rRNA gene sequences, we for the first time analyzed the gut bacterial community composition in eight feces samples of wild C. albirostris. From a total of 243,634 high-quality sequences, we identified 186 genera, included in 17 prokaryotic phyla in the feces. The relative proportions of Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes were highly consistent in each individual sample. The most frequently detected genus was Ruminococcaceae UCG-005, ranging from 6.70 to 21.00%, displaying positively connections with the Rikenellaceae RC9 gut group. The bacterial communities associated with C. albirostris provide the basic knowledge for further microbiological studies and facilitates the conservation efforts of this vulnerable deer species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Determination of genealogical relationship between broodstock and progeny is important to estimate selection response in aquaculture breeding programs. Currently, the application of microsatellite markers for parentage determination is gaining popularity in aquaculture. In the present study, 17 simple sequence repeat markers were evaluated for parentage assignment on rohu. The allele frequencies, exclusion probabilities and polymorphic information contents (PIC) were calculated using Cervus. The polymorphic information content values showed that most of the microsatellite markers were highly informative (PIC > 0.7). Based on the exclusion power, eight microsatellite markers were chosen for parentage assignment. The robustness of this suite was assessed in five full-sib and four half-sib families using two contrasting methods, a pair-wise likelihood comparison approach in Cervus and a full-pedigree likelihood method in the COLONY program. Using real data set, the correct matching rate was more than 98%, comparable to the simulated study (99.9%) in the case of Cervus 3.0 and 100% in the case of COLONY. The result of the present study implies that this set of microsatellites would be an effective tool for parentage and sibship identification, testing performance of families and estimating genetic parameters in the ongoing selective breeding program of rohu. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the Trivers-Willard hypothesis, females of polygynous mammal species can adaptively modify offspring sex ratio, which would provide them evolutionary benefits in terms of a higher number of grand-offspring. In red deer ( Cervus elaphus), a species where the reproductive success of males is significantly more variable than that of females, mothers that are in good condition are expected to have a male-biased offspring sex ratio but only in a population below carrying capacity. We aimed at testing the Trivers-Willard hypothesis on a low-density population of red deer in large woodlands of north-eastern Poland. The overall foetal sex ratio did not differ from parity. The mother's probability of having male offspring increased with her body mass independently of age and population density. Such condition-based adjustment of the offspring sex ratio in female red deer from a low-density population conforms to the Trivers-Willard hypothesis. However, full support of Trivers-Willard predictions would require further investigations comparing survival and reproductive output of male and female offspring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of present study is to estimate the level of admixture within species originating from genus Cervus (family Cervidae) that can reflect not only their phylogeny origin, but mainly the impact of introgression and hybridization in Red deer population inhabit the forest area of Slovakia. It was happened over the last few centuries. Recently, the introduction and hybridization by non-native species is considered as the major risk of diversity loss within autochthonous Red deer populations in area of Central Europe. The genomic data were obtained from in total 61 animals (species A. axis, D. dama, C. elaphus, C. Nippon, C. canadensis) based on applying the cross-species SNP genotyping (Illumina BovineSNP50 BeadChip). The quality control of genotyping data has been performed to eliminate any SNPs with genotyping errors (loci with >10% missing genotypes), less informative markers (MAF<0.01) and markers deviating from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium limit of 0.0001. From totally 43.21% of successfully genotyped markers up to 843 were informative for subsequent estimation. As expected the presence of admixed individuals was found within Red deer and Wapiti populations, but the signal of cross-species admixture was low. The membership probabilities of individuals were higher than 90% within each of analysed cervid group. Our study showed that the Slovak Red deer population can provide valuable gene pool within Central European deer populations in respect to the management of genetic resources conservation strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]