SREL Reprint #1954

Variabilidad genética en la población de venado cola blanca en la Isla San Lucas, Costa Rica, y las implicaciones para su manejo

Christopher Vaughan, Krishna Fisher, Miguel A. Rodriguez, Paul Johns, and Michael Smith

Abstract: Muscle, liver and blood were collected from seventeen white-tailed deer on Isla San Lucas (ISL), Costa Rica, in December, 1985 to determine the genetic characteristics of the population. Thirty-four loci were analyzed using electrophoretic techniques. Genetic information from white-tailed deer samples was compared between three sites: 1) ISL (n = 17), 2) Savannah River Plant, Georgia, USA (SRP) (n = 6.349), and 3) Suriname (SSA) (n = 10). From 18 loci assayed from deer across the three locations for multilocus heterozygosity (H), alleles per locus (A), and polymorphism (P), it was found that SRP white-tailed deer had H = 0,10; A = 2,17; y P = 38,9%; the SSA white-tailed deer sample had H = 0,039; A = 1,11; y P = 11,1; and the white-tailed deer sample from ISL had H = 0,039; A = 1,11; y P = 11,1. Genetic distances between the three white-tailed deer populations (ISL, SRP, SSA) was: ISL vs. SRP, D = 0,085; SRP vs. SSA, D = 0.164; y ISL vs. SSA, D = 0,112. Two new alleles not previously reported in North American or SSA white-tailed deer were observed in ISL deer for two of the 34 loci analyzed, EST-2 (110) and TF (108). Thirty-two loci were assayed from the ISL and SRP samples. White-tailed deer from ISL had H = 0,055; A = 1,19; y P = 18,75%, while the white-tailed deer from SRP had H = 0,117; A = 2,22; y P = 46,88%. Genetic distance between the two populations was D = 0,169. These results show that the low genetic variability of the ISL deer population is more similar to SSA then to SRP. Possible explanations for this low genetic variability include: insularity, small island size, founder and bottleneck effects resulting in small effective population size. The same factors may explain low H and P values for ISL deer. Deer selected for reintroductions should have the highest genetic variability possible. However, to date apparently the use of fawn and adult white-tailed deer from ISL for reintroductions has been successful and we recommend to continue this work until new information shows the contrary.

SREL Reprint #1954

Vaughan, C., K. Fisher, M.A. Rodriguez, P. Johns, and M. Smith. 1995. Variabilidad genética en la población de venado cola blanca en la Isla San Lucas, Costa Rica, y las implicaciones para su manejo. pp. 91-102 In: C. Vaughan and M.A. Rodríguez (Eds.). Ecología y Manejo del venado de cola blanca en México y Costa Rica. Editorial de la Universidad Nacional, Heredia, Costa Rica. 

This information was provided by the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (srel.uga.edu).