Journal of Heredity 2004:95(2):136-143
© 2004 The American Genetic Association
Genetic Roots of the Red Deer (Cervus elaphus) Population in Eastern Switzerland
From the Wildlife Biology and Wildlife Management Unit, Department for Ecosystem and Landscape, Technical University Munich-Weihenstephan, D-85354 Freising, Germany (Kuehn and Schroeder), Swiss National Park, CH-7530 Zernez, Switzerland (Haller), and Department for Animal Science, Technical University Munich-Weihenstephan, D-85354 Freising, Germany (Rottmann). We thank all wildlife, national park, and forest officers involved for their helpful support and all the hunters for making the samples available. We would like to give special thanks to Dr. R. Gross for useful discussions in population genetic computations and Dr. Foerster for laboratory assistance. We also thank U. Puszkarz for criticism and comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by the Swiss National Park.
Address correspondence to R. Kuehn at the address above, or e-mail: kuehn{at}wzw.tum.de.
Overhunting of red deer (Cervus elaphus) in eastern Switzerland led to its extinction in the second half of the 17th century. Natural recolonization must have taken place later, because red deer were seen again in the canton of the Grisons (eastern Switzerland) in the 1870s. According to historical data, three different populations could have served as the source population. To determine the genetic origin of the eastern Swiss red deer population, we collected samples from five different subpopulations in the canton of the Grisons as well as from four adjacent populations in Germany, Liechtenstein, Austria, and Italy. We analyzed the samples by genotyping 18 microsatellite loci. FST values, assignment tests, correspondence analysis, and fuzzy clustering clearly pointed to Liechtenstein as the most probable source population for the red deer in eastern Switzerland. In addition, our analyses revealed high gene diversity in all examined populations. Gene flow and the high genetic admixture are discussed.
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