Publicaciones Científicas

Castillo, L. et al. (2011)

Castillo, L., Fernández-Llario, P., Mateos, C., Carranza, J., Benítez-Medina, J.M., García-Jiménez, W., Bermejo-Martín, F., Hermoso de Mendoza, J. (2011). Management practices and their association with Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex prevalence in red deer populations in Southwestern Spain. Preventive Veterinary Medicine 98, 58-63.

Intensification of game management may increase the prevalence of tuberculosis (TB) in wildlife despite eradication programs implemented in cattle herds in the same areas. In this cross-sectional study, we investigated the association between wild game management practices and the presence of tuberculosis in red deer populations in Southwestern Spain. Five hundred and fifty-one animals were examined by necropsy to detect tuberculosis-like lesions in the main lymph nodes. Prevalence, as determined by TB-like lesions, was estimated to be 5.1% of animals, with 77% of TB-like lesions confirmed by PCR. Our results suggest that population density, in addition to factors which promote the local aggregation of animals, is factors associated with increased prevalence of TB in red deer populations. We suggest that management practices including supplementary feeding, fencing, water ponds and interaction with domestic livestock should be revised in order to prevent TB in wild deer both.

https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S0167587710003314?token=7EDF61C4B7DA043557A585B2FA347DA6F26C468647B7461AFEB9E3992093A538F652D89B4B962327436DFDD6AFE3E2F8

Pérez-González , J. et al. (2011)

Pérez-González, J., Carranza, J.,  Mateos, C. (2011) Mothers that produce sons and daughters are genetically different in red deer. Mammalian Biology.  77, 147-150 

Sex ratio theory, and in particular Fisher principle, assumes parental control over the sex of offspring through the action of autosomal genes with Mendelian segregation. In spite of the importance of Fisher’s principle in evolutionary biology, the number of studies looking for possible loci involved in sex ratio bias is, at best, very low. Newly developed genetic tools frequently allow evolutionary biologists to manage genetic data. Here we encourage the application of association tools to databases that include genetic information for autosomal loci and offspring sex to improve our knowledge on sex ratio evolution. As an example we use microsatellite markers to scan autosomal chromosomes and look for linked genetic regions associated with offspring sex in red deer (Cervus elaphus). We found a microsatellite marker (CelJP38) mapped in chromosome 27 for which females producing sons and daughters were genetically different. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that shows a genetic signal that points out an association between mother genotype and offspring sex in natural populations of a mammal.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1016/j.mambio.2011.07.006

Pérez-González, J. & Carranza, J. (2011).

Pérez-González, J. & Carranza, J. (2011). Female aggregation interacts with population structure to influence the degree of polygyny in red deer. Animal Behaviour 82, 957-970.

In polygynous systems, female aggregation may affect the degree of polygyny by increasing the variance in male mating success. However, other population features such as the sex ratio and the age structure of males may also affect the distribution of male mating success. We combined behavioural observations and genetic data to investigate the relationship between spatial distribution, population structure and degree of polygyny in 30 red deer, Cervus elaphus, populations in Spain. We found that although female aggregation was positively related to mean harem size, under conditions of high female aggregation males were unable to monopolize whole female groups. The relationships between female aggregation and behavioural estimates of the variance in male mating success were strongly influenced by the sex ratio and the proportion of competitive males in the population. Potential skew of male mating success and potential opportunity for sexual selection were higher in adults than in young or subadult males. Finally, the behaviourally estimated distribution of male mating success matched the genetically estimated degree of polygyny, especially under conditions of relatively high synchrony in female receptivity. Our results show how population structure can interact with female aggregation in space and time to influence the opportunity for sexual selection in red deer.

https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S0003347211003034?token=7E36E243B0CF2710A92294323F02D33F39AB23D4E9BAB1BF48CED463B1A5D5130C02EE1F02CF31A1AFC870DA5F28AEC9

Castillo, L. et al. (2010)

Castillo, L., FernándezLlario, 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. et al. (2010)

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. et al. (2010)

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)

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. et al. J. (2010)

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. et al. (2010)

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

Artificial barriers such as wire fences constitute a common conservation management practice to protect vegetation from the browsing impact of large herbivores. Apart from protecting the fenced area, these barriers may affect the use of adjacent areas by animals. For example, they may interrupt major movement routes. We studied the effect of fences on an area used by red deer in Doñana National Park (Andalucía, south west Spain). We used an observational approach to study the effect of existing permanent barriers, and an experimental approach to investigate the effect of new barriers placed between the main areas through which animals moved from resting to foraging sites. Our study was carried out during the mating season, so we could also observe the effects on the distribution of females among harems. We found that “shadow areas”, where projection lines of the movement from resting to foraging areas were interrupted by the barrier, were used less by deer. In agreement with this result, grasses in shadow areas tended to be longer than in other areas, indicating unequal use of resources depending on the placement of barriers. Also, permanent barriers appeared to have negative, longterm effects on the maintenance of meadows as denoted by a higher proportion of rushes in meadows within shadow areas. Experimental barriers supported the cause-effect relationship by decreasing the number of deer using the experimental shadow areas. Our results demonstrated unexpected ecological effects of small barriers on the landscape, mediated by modification of the spatial behaviour of red deer.

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

    Carranza, J. (2010)

    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