Island Populations, Human Introductions and the Limitations of Genetic Analyses: the Case of the Sardinian Red Deer (Cervus elaphus corsicanus)

The two red deer subspecies C. e. corsicanus (Corsican red deer, endemic to the Tyrrhenian islands of Sardinia and Corsica) and C. e. barbarus (Barbary red deer, presently confined to a small area along the Tunisian-Algerian border) are classified by the IUCN as "Endangered" and "Lower risk (near threatened)", respectively (until recently, the Barbary red deer's status was "Vulnerable"). Both subspecies underwent severe bottlenecks in the twentieth century. We review our results on genetic variability and differentiation in these two subspecies at polymorphic microsatellite loci and sequences of the mitochondrial control region and discuss their bearing on conservation and phylogeography. Our analyses yielded very low genetic variability for C. e. corsicanus. The Barbary red deer also showed low variability values in a European comparison, but diversity was not as low as might have been feared in the light of the population's history. Analyses of molecular variance, assignment tests and factorial correspondence analysis did not yield any signs of differentiation among the Tunisian subgroups studied, whereas there was clear evidence of a differentiation between the Sardinian and the Corsican red deer population. The phylogeographic analysis showed close relationships between C. e. corsicanus and autochthonous Italian deer at two unlinked sets of nuclear loci, suggesting as the most likely scenario an introduction of Italian mainland red deer to the Tyrrhenian islands, from where animals were probably translocated to North-Africa.

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“…The origin of the Corsican red deer has been a matter of considerable debate (reviewed in Vigne 1988 andHartl 2006). The two main questions are:…”

Section: Phylogeography Of the Corsican Red Deermentioning

confidence: 99%

Conservation Genetics and Phylogeography of the Threatened Corsican and Barbary Red Deer (Cervus elaphus corsicanus and C. e. barbarus)

Zachos

Hajji²,

Hmwe

2009

Relict Species

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“…The origin of the Corsican red deer has been widely debated (Vigne 1992;Vigne and Valladas 1996;Masseti 1998;Ludt et al 2004;Pitra et al 2004;Hmwe et al 2006;Zachos and Hartl 2006). Recent results from Hajji et al (2008) support paleontological and archaeological Wndings (Vigne 1992;Vigne and Valladas 1996;Masseti 1998), which suggests that the subspecies derived from the Italian red deer population introduced from the mainland to Sardinia and Corsica during the Late Neolithic.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial-explicit assessment of current and future conservation options for the endangered Corsican Red Deer (Cervus elaphus corsicanus) in Sardinia

et al. 2009

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The Corsican red deer, a sub-species of the European red deer endemic to Sardinia and Corsica, was abundant on both islands at the beginning of 1900. It went extinct in Corsica and reached a minimum of 100 individuals in Sardinia by 1970. Numbers have recovered in Sardinia with more than 1,000 rutting males now present; in the 1980s the deer was reintroduced to Corsica, but the Sardinian population remains fragmented. We developed a potential distribution model in Sardinia using Ecological Niche Factor Analysis. To assess the deer's protection status we compared the model with the existing and proposed conservation areas and investigated different conservation scenarios in relation to the expansion of its current range and resilience to future changes in land use and predicted trends of desertification. According to our results over 70% of Sardinia is unsuitable to the deer, nevertheless high suitability areas (Mediterranean forests away from main roads) are available throughout the island, particularly in the south and in the central-eastern part. Existing protected areas do not provide for the conservation of the deer but public owned forests, where hunting is prohibited, extend some level of protection, and the protected areas proposed by the Regional administration, if implemented, will be increasing this protection. Three main areas have emerged as conservation priorities to guarantee adequate conservation potential in the future. Our approach provides valuable data to inform conservation policy, and could be easily replicated in other parts of the Mediterranean

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Phylogeography and founder effect of the endangered Corsican red deer (Cervus elaphus corsicanus)

Hajji¹,

Charfi-Cheikrouha²,

Lorenzini

et al. 2007

Biodivers Conserv

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Red deer (n = 149) from eight geographical locations, including the endangered endemic populations from the Tyrrhenian islands (Sardinia and Corsica), were analysed at eight polymorphic microsatellite loci. Two questions were addressed: (1) Is there a founder eVect in the Corsican population, which was reintroduced to the island using Sardinian deer after the species' extinction on Corsica? (2) What is the origin of the Tyrrhenian or Corsican red deer (Cervus elaphus corsicanus)? Our results showed signs of a founder eVect for the red deer on Corsica in that these deer showed diVerentiation from the Sardinian population as measured by F ST values, assignment tests (with and without a priori deWnition of populations) and individual-based dendrograms. Genetic variability, however, did not diVer signiWcantly between the two populations. With respect to the phylogeography of C. e. corsicanus we found that both deer from NorthAfrica and Mesola on the Italian mainland were genetically close to the Corsican red deer, but phylogenetic trees based on genetic distances were only poorly supported statistically. Among all populations studied the Mesola red deer showed the lowest distance values from Corsican red deer and yielded allele frequencies that were more similar to those of C. e. corsicanus than were those of North-African red deer. These results are in line with recent palaeontological and archaeozoological Wndings which suggest that the Corsican red deer is derived from small Italian red deer introduced from the mainland to

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Island Populations, Human Introductions and the Limitations of Genetic Analyses: the Case of the Sardinian Red Deer (Cervus elaphus corsicanus)

Cited by 6 publications

References 25 publications

Conservation Genetics and Phylogeography of the Threatened Corsican and Barbary Red Deer (Cervus elaphus corsicanus and C. e. barbarus)

Conservation Genetics and Phylogeography of the Threatened Corsican and Barbary Red Deer (Cervus elaphus corsicanus and C. e. barbarus)

Spatial-explicit assessment of current and future conservation options for the endangered Corsican Red Deer (Cervus elaphus corsicanus) in Sardinia

Phylogeography and founder effect of the endangered Corsican red deer (Cervus elaphus corsicanus)

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