Research Finds that Colombian Deer Has More Lineages than Previously Believed
Perhaps the most striking name by which the white-tailed deer (Odocoileus goudotii) is known in Colombia is the one given to it in the department of Boyaca: spirit of the paramo. In this part of the country, it inhabits paramo and high Andean forest areas, especially in the Siscunsi-Oceta (Mongua, Mongui, Sogamoso and Aquitania), Cortadera (Toca, Pesca and Siachoque), El Consuelo (Belen, Cerinza, Tutaza and Santa Rosa de Viterbo) regional natural parks and in the Cocuy and Pisba national natural parks.
But this is not the only department where this species, which is important for the balance and health of the ecosystem, lives. It inhabits such dissimilar areas that they range from cold paramos such as those in Boyaca to hot areas such as the Llanos, the Caribbean and the Colombian Pacific.
It is a medium-sized herbivorous mammal that weighs between 80 and 310 pounds, whose coloration varies from brown to grayish, but its neck, belly and underside of its tail are white, from which its name comes. Males have antlers.
Research finds several white-tailed deer lineages
They are key species for the balance and health of the ecosystem, and are part of the food web as herbivores that disperse seeds and renew the foliage of the various plants they eat, and as prey for carnivores such as the puma and the Andean bear. Their droppings are broken down, used and reincorporated into the soil by many beetles and other insects. Shed antlers and bones are used by rodents (squirrels and mice) as a source of calcium.
The main threats to their conservation are the expansion of the agricultural frontier, since it reduces the availability of wild food, attacks by domestic dogs and hunting. As can be seen, it would seem that everything was already known about this valuable species. But that is not the case.
Until now, it was considered to have very few genetic lineages, but research has just found that it would have at least four distinct lineages, a greater diversity than was known. For years, different authors debated how many species or subspecies of white-tailed deer exist in Colombia without genetic evidence to support their proposals. This study begins to fill that gap.
The first major molecular study of this species in the country analyzed DNA obtained from skins preserved in museums, blood from zoo animals and tissues collected in the field, and provides new evidence to guide its conservation, especially in populations about which very little information exists, explained the National University (UNAL) in a press release.
The research was led by Jessica Rodriguez Leon, a master’s degree holder in Biology from UNAL, who worked with museum samples, so she had to deal with fragmented DNA and with residues of the chemicals used to preserve them, which inhibit genetic amplification.
Great diversity functions as a “biological insurance”
Biologist Rodriguez overcame the obstacle by adjusting reagents and designing her own primers, short fragments of synthetic DNA that tell the copying enzyme where to start and where to stop, like a kind of guide that anchors itself precisely at the point that needs to be analyzed, UNAL explained.
She compared the DNA of each Colombian deer with specimens from the United States, Mexico, Guatemala, Venezuela, French Guiana and Peru to carry out phylogenetic reconstructions and a kinship network, supported by different statistical methods.
The analyses support findings from other studies according to which genetic groupings do not always coincide with the boundaries separating subspecies based on their appearance, the press release adds. Thus, deer from the same region and classified under the same name turned out, in some cases, to be genetically distant from one another.
What is certain is that the different places where it lives, from the elevation of the Andes to the variety of climates and ecosystems, would have influenced the formation of its different lineages.
“Those geographic barriers would help explain the four lineages identified for this deer, Odocoileus virginianus,” UNAL says. “Those associated with the paramo have gray coats: O. v. goudotii, in the Eastern Cordillera, and O. v. ustus, in the southern Andean region. Those in lowlands are ochre-yellowish: O. v. gymnotis, in the Llanos and Caribbean, and O. v. tropicalis, in the Pacific.
Of the four, only O. v. gymnotis is classified in the least concern category; the other three have deficient or no information, and O. v. tropicalis is also critically endangered.
The biologist explains that the threats faced by these subspecies are similar to those affecting much of Colombia’s wildlife: habitat loss due to deforestation, hunting and illegal trafficking of specimens and parts such as antlers and skins.
In addition, the deer has received little scientific attention precisely because it is a common and widely distributed species, unlike other more emblematic species that concentrate greater conservation resources.
But the preliminary results of the research (which requires further development) leave good news. The great diversity of deer in Colombia functions as a kind of “biological insurance,” by offering greater possibilities of responding to diseases, droughts or unexpected changes.