Dataset Information

Colonization of the Scottish islands via long-distance Neolithic transport of red deer (Cervus elaphus).

ABSTRACT: Red deer (Cervus elaphus) have played a key role in human societies throughout history, with important cultural significance and as a source of food and materials. This relationship can be traced back to the earliest human cultures and continues to the present day. Humans are thought to be responsible for the movement of a considerable number of deer throughout history, although the majority of these movements are poorly described or understood. Studying such translocations allows us to better understand ancient human-wildlife interactions, and in the case of island colonizations, informs us about ancient human maritime practices. This study uses DNA sequences to characterise red deer genetic diversity across the Scottish islands (Inner and Outer Hebrides and Orkney) and mainland using ancient deer samples, and attempts to infer historical colonization events. We show that deer from the Outer Hebrides and Orkney are unlikely to have originated from mainland Scotland, implying that humans introduced red deer from a greater distance. Our results are also inconsistent with an origin from Ireland or Norway, suggesting long-distance maritime travel by Neolithic people to the outer Scottish Isles from an unknown source. Common haplotypes and low genetic differentiation between the Outer Hebrides and Orkney imply common ancestry and/or gene flow across these islands. Close genetic proximity between the Inner Hebrides and Ireland, however, corroborates previous studies identifying mainland Britain as a source for red deer introductions into Ireland. This study provides important information on the processes that led to the current distribution of the largest surviving indigenous land mammal in the British Isles.

SUBMITTER: Stanton DW

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4843653 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Colonization of the Scottish islands via long-distance Neolithic transport of red deer (Cervus elaphus).

Stanton David W G DW Mulville Jacqueline A JA Bruford Michael W MW

Proceedings. Biological sciences 20160401 1828

Red deer (Cervus elaphus) have played a key role in human societies throughout history, with important cultural significance and as a source of food and materials. This relationship can be traced back to the earliest human cultures and continues to the present day. Humans are thought to be responsible for the movement of a considerable number of deer throughout history, although the majority of these movements are poorly described or understood. Studying such translocations allows us to better u ...[more]

PMID: 27053752

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Project description:BACKGROUND:Red deer (Cervus elaphus) are a common wild definitive host for liver fluke (Fasciola hepatica) that have been the subject of limited diagnostic surveillance. This study aimed to explore the extent to which coprological diagnoses for F. hepatica in red deer in the Scottish Highlands, Scotland, are associated with variability among hosts and habitats. METHODS:Our analyses were based on coproantigen ELISA diagnoses derived from faecal samples that were collected from carcasses of culled deer on nine hunting estates during two sampling seasons. Sampling locations were used as centroids about which circular home ranges were quantified. Data were stratified by season, and associations between host, hydrological, land cover and meteorological variables and binary diagnoses during 2013-2014 (n?=?390) were explored by mixed effect logistic regression. The ability of our model to predict diagnoses relative to that which would be expected by chance was quantified, and data collected during 2012-2013 (n?=?289) were used to assess model transferability. RESULTS:During 2013-2014, habitat and host characteristics explained 28% of variation in diagnoses, whereby half of the explained variation was attributed to differences among estates. The probability of a positive diagnosis was positively associated with the length of streams in the immediate surroundings of each sampling location, but no non-zero relationships were found for land cover or lifetime average weather variables. Regardless of habitat, the probability of a positive diagnosis remained greatest for males, although males were always sampled earlier in the year than females. A slight decrease in prediction efficacy occurred when our model was used to predict diagnoses for out-of-sample data. CONCLUSIONS:We are cautious to extrapolate our findings geographically, owing to a large proportion of variation attributable to overarching differences among estates. Nevertheless, the temporal transferability of our model is encouraging. While we did not identify any non-zero relationship between meteorological variables and probability of diagnosis, we attribute this (in part) to limitations of interpolated meteorological data. Further study into non-independent diagnoses within estates and differences among estates in terms of deer management, would improve our understanding of F. hepatica prevalence in wild deer.

Dataset Information

Colonization of the Scottish islands via long-distance Neolithic transport of red deer (Cervus elaphus).

Publications

Colonization of the Scottish islands via long-distance Neolithic transport of red deer (Cervus elaphus).

Similar Datasets

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