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

Passilongo, D., Reby, D., Carranza, J., Apollonio, M. (2013) Roaring High and Low: Composition and Possible Functions of the Iberian Stag’s Vocal Repertoire. PLoS ONE 8(5): e63841.

We provide a detailed description of the rutting vocalisations of free-ranging male Iberian deer (Cervus elaphus hispanicus, Hilzheimer 1909), a geographically isolated and morphologically differentiated subspecies of red deer Cervus elaphus. We combine spectrographic examinations, spectral analyses and automated classifications to identify different call types, and compare the composition of the vocal repertoire with that of other red deer subspecies.

Iberian stags give bouts of roars (and more rarely, short series of barks) that are typically composed of two different types of calls. Long Common Roars are mostly given at the beginning or at the end of the bout, and are characterised by a high fundamental frequency (F0) resulting in poorly defined formant frequencies but a relatively high amplitude. In contrast, Short Common Roars are typically given in the middle or at the end of the bout, and are characterised by a lower F0 resulting in relatively well defined vocal tract resonances, but low amplitude. While we did not identify entirely Harsh Roars (as described in the Scottish red deer subspecies (Cervus elaphus scoticus)), a small percentage of Long Common Roars contained segments of deterministic chaos.

We suggest that the evolution of two clearly distinct types of Common Roars may reflect divergent selection pressures favouring either vocal efficiency in high pitched roars or the communication of body size in low-pitched, high spectral density roars highlighting vocal tract resonances. The clear divergence of the Iberian red deer vocal repertoire from those of other documented European red deer populations reinforces the status of this geographical variant as a distinct subspecies.

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0063841&type=printable

Volodin, I., Volodina, E., Frey, R., Carranza, J. & Torres-Porras, J. (2013). Spectrographic analysis points to source-filter coupling in rutting roars of Iberian red deer. Acta Ethol. 16, 57-63. DOI 10.1007/s10211-012-0133-1.

Source filter coupling is the rarest acoustic phenomenon not only in Iberian red deer, but in any mammal. In most mammals, sound production can be well described in the framework of source filter theory. The vocal output is the result of combined work of the larynx (the source) and of the supralaryngeal vocal tract (the filter). The source filter theory suggests the independence of sour ce and filter. Thus, vocal tractfiltering should not affect the fundamental frequency (f0) of the sound created in the larynx. Spectrographically, the source is mostly characterized by the f0 an ditsharmonics,whilethefilter

by the vocal tract resonances, i.e., formant frequencies. Nevertheless, a non-independent (coupled) source and filter can be proposed when the vocal folds start oscillating at one of the formant frequencies. Couplin gbetweensourceandfilterhas been found in human singers and predicted for red deer Cervus elaphus by a computer modeling approach. This study describes different modes of phonation in a natural bout of rutting calls of Iberian red deer Cervus elaphus hispanicus and the transition from a chaotic mode to a probable source

filter coupling mode. This ph enomenon might be involved in the production of extremely high-frequency bugles of North American and Asian subspecies of C. elaphus

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs10211-012-0133-1.pdf

Torres-Porras, J., Carranza, J., Pérez-González, J., Mateos, C., Alarcos, S. (2013) The tragedy of the commons: unsustainable population structure of Iberian red deer in hunting estates. European Journal of Wildlife Research 60 (2),351–357

Hunting can influence population structure with consequences in ecological and evolutionary processes. Populations of Iberian red deer (Cervus elaphus hispanicus) in Spain occur under two different management regimes: fenced and unfenced (open) estates. We compared census data, hunting bags and data from hunted individuals between both types of estates. Harvest on stags was moderate in fenced estates but strong in open ones, probably due to the competition between neighbouring landowners over the same deer populations. On the contrary, female culling was low in open estates compared to fenced ones. As a result, populations in open estates have mostly young males and strongly femalebiased sex ratios. Female-biased population structure in open estates did not result in higher number of males being harvested per year compared with fenced estates, probably due to negative effects on development, survival and reproduction, and harvested males were younger, and hence, with smaller antlers. There is published evidence for undesirable effects of biased population sex ratio and age structure in these red deer populations. Our results indicate that this type of management may be unsustainable and recommend that harvest on males in open estates should be reduced and that on females increased, in order to maintain a more balanced population structure that may allow sustainable population dynamics and the operation of natural evolutionary processes.

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs10344-013-0793-9.pdf

Costa, V., Pérez-González, J., Santos, P., Fernández-Llario, P., Carranza, J., Zsolnai, A., Anton, I., Buzgó, J., Varga, G., Monteiro, N., Beja-Pereira, A. (2012) Microsatellite markers for identification and parentage analysis in the European wild boar (Sus scrofa). BMC Res Notes 5, 479

Background

The wild boar (Sus scrofa) is among the most widespread mammal species throughout the old world. Presently, studies concerning microsatellites in domestic pigs and wild boars have been carried out in order to investigate domestication, social behavior and general diversity patterns among either populations or breeds. The purpose of the current study is to develop a robust set of microsatellites markers for parentage analyses and individual identification.

Findings

A set of 14 previously reported microsatellites markers have been optimized and tested in three populations from Hungary, Portugal and Spain, in a total of 167 samples. The results indicate high probabilities of exclusion (0.99999), low probability of identity (2.0E^-13 – 2.5E^-9) and a parentage assignment of 100%.

Conclusions

Our results demonstrate that this set of markers is a useful and efficient tool for the individual identification and parentage assignment in wild boars.

https://bmcresnotes.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/1756-0500-5-479

Pérez-González, J., Frantz, A., Torres-Porras, J., Castillo, l. & Carranza, J. (2012). Population structure, habitat features and genetic structure of managed red deer populations. Eur. J. Wildl. Res. 58, 933–943. DOI 10.1007/s10344-012-0636-0.

Management of game ungulates alters population structure and habitat features, with potential effects on genetic structure. Here, we study 26 red deer (Cervus elaphus) populations in Spain. We used census data and habitat features as well as genetic information at 11 microsatellite markers from 717 individuals. We found that metapopulations presented a distribution associated with forest interruptions. Within metapopulations, fences did not have asignificant effect on red deer genetic structure. The metapopulations we studied presented similar population structure, but they differed in habitat features and genetic structure. The metapopulation with higher resource availability showed a genetic structure pattern in which genetic relatedness between geographically close individuals was high while relatedness between geographically distant individuals was low. Contrarily, the metapopulation with lower resource availability presented a genetic structure pattern in which the genetic relatedness between individuals of different populations was independent of the geographic distance.

We discuss the possible connection between resource availability and genetic structure. Finally, we did not find any population or environmental variable related to genetic dif-ferentiation within metapopulations.

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs10344-012-0636-0.pdf

Frey, R., Volodin, I., Volodina, E., Carranza, J. & Torres-Porras, J. (2012). Vocal anatomy, tongue protrusion behaviour and the acoustics of rutting roars in free-ranging Iberian red deer stags (Cervus elaphus hispanicus). Journal of Anatomy 220, 271-292.

Roaring in rutting Iberian red deer stags Cervus elaphus hispanicus is unusual compared to other subspecies of red deer, which radiated from the Iberian refugium after the last glacial maximum. In all red deer stags, the larynx occupies a permanent low mid-neck resting position and is momentarily retracted almost down to the rostral end of the sternum during the production of rutting calls. Simultaneous with the retraction of the larynx, male Iberian red deer pronouncedly protrude the tongue during most of their rutting roars. This poses a mechanical challenge for the vocal tract (vt) and for the hyoid apparatus, as tongue and larynx are strongly pulled in opposite directions. This study (i) examines the vocal anatomy and the acoustics of the rutting roars in free-ranging male C. e. hispanicus; (ii) establishes a potential mechanism of simultaneous tongue protrusion and larynx retraction by applying a two-dimensional model based on graphic reconstructions in single video frames of unrestrained animals; and (iii) advances a hypothesis of evaporative cooling by tongue protrusion in the males of a subspecies of red deer constrained to perform all of the exhausting rutting activities, including acoustic display, in a hot and arid season.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/j.1469-7580.2011.01467.x

Carranza, J. & Polo, V. (2012). Is there an expected relationship between parental expenditure and sex ratio of litters or broods?. Animal Behaviour 84, 67-76.

Parents may be selected to adjust the sex ratio of their offspring when parental expenditure yields Different fitness returns from sons and daughters. This prediction is clear when parents produce only one offspring per reproductive attempt, but more complicated when parental resources are shared by several offspring, and parents may potentially influence the resource allocation among offspring as well as their number and sex. Here we present an optimization model to make predictions on how total parental expenditure may relate to the number and sex of offspring at every rank position within the litter or brood as well as the sex ratio of the litter/brood for the case of a large population with stable Fisherian sex ratio. We show that selection for sex ratio adjustment should be stronger for offspring at higher- ranking positions, for which the amount of resources received can be more predictable. Also, the relationship between parental resources devoted to a litter/brood of a given size and the primary sex ratio (proportion of males) is not expected to be a monotonically increasing function but rather a J-shaped relationship, steeper for small litters/broods and more extreme sexual dimorphism. Parental expenditure relates to increased sex ratio only for small variations in parental expenditure and for a given brood/litter size. For variable litter/brood sizes, a general relationship between parental resources and litter/brood sex ratio is not expected, although in practice pooling litters or broods of different sizes may produce negative relationships between parental expenditure and sex ratio of the litter/brood.

https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S0003347212001650?token=A3CE4809913F0532983B1AC1AD27F546D562911C757499FA01B40367FC3759C4343EC28C3F979A74145C3D0E51AEAEE5