The 10,000-year biocultural history of fallow deer and its implications for conservation policy.

Over the last 10,000 y, humans have manipulated fallow deer populations with varying outcomes. Persian fallow deer (Dama mesopotamica) are now endangered. European fallow deer (Dama dama) are globally widespread and are simultaneously considered wild, domestic, endangered, invasive and are even the national animal of Barbuda and Antigua. Despite their close association with people, there is no consensus regarding their natural ranges or the timing and circumstances of their human-mediated translocations and extirpations. Our mitochondrial analyses of modern and archaeological specimens revealed two distinct clades of European fallow deer present in Anatolia and the Balkans. Zooarchaeological evidence suggests these regions were their sole glacial refugia. By combining biomolecular analyses with archaeological and textual evidence, we chart the declining distribution of Persian fallow deer and demonstrate that humans repeatedly translocated European fallow deer, sourced from the most geographically distant populations. Deer taken to Neolithic Chios and Rhodes derived not from nearby Anatolia, but from the Balkans. Though fallow deer were translocated throughout the Mediterranean as part of their association with the Greco-Roman goddesses Artemis and Diana, deer taken to Roman Mallorca were not locally available Dama dama, but Dama mesopotamica. Romans also initially introduced fallow deer to Northern Europe but the species became extinct and was reintroduced in the medieval period, this time from Anatolia. European colonial powers then transported deer populations across the globe. The biocultural histories of fallow deer challenge preconceptions about the divisions between wild and domestic species and provide information that should underpin modern management strategies.

Evolution of population genetic structure of the British roe deer by natural and anthropogenic processes (Capreolus capreolus).

Human influence typically impacts on natural populations of conservation interest. These interactions are varied and sometimes complex, and may be negative and unintended or associated with conservation and management strategy. Understanding the details of how these interactions influence and are influenced by natural evolutionary processes is essential to the development of effective conservation strategies. In this study, we investigate a species in Britain that has experienced both negative impact through overhunting in historical times and management efforts through culls and translocations. At the same time, there are regional populations that have been less affected by human influence. We use mtDNA and nuclear microsatellite DNA markers to investigate patterns of connectivity and diversity and find multiple insular populations in Britain that probably evolved within the Holocene (when the habitat was free of ice). We identify three concurrent processes. First, surviving indigenous populations show highly provincial patterns of philopatry, maintaining and generating population structure on a small geographic scale. Second, founder populations into habitat extirpated of native populations have expanded, but remained largely insular. Third, introductions into established populations generate some admixture. We discuss the implications for the evolution of diversity of the integration of natural processes with anthropogenic influences on population size and distribution.