DOI: 10.5061/dryad.dncjsxkxt
title: Data from: An isolated white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) population on St. John, US Virgin Islands shows low inbreeding and comparable heterozygosity to other larger populations

description: This is the first study to document the genetic diversity of the
 white-tailed deer population on St. John, US Virgin Islands. The island
 population was founded by a small number of animals, has very limited
 hunting or predation, and recently experienced a reduction in size
 following an extended drought in 2015. DNA samples were collected from
 hair from 23 anesthetized adult deer (13 males, 10 females) ranging in age
 from 1-8 years (3.36+ 1.9 yr) and also from fecal DNA samples, for a total
 of 42 individuals analyzed for genetic diversity. The St. John deer data
 set averaged 4.19 alleles per marker and demonstrates the second lowest
 number of alleles (A) when compared to other populations of Odocoileus
 virginianus (4.19). Heterozygosity was similar to the other studies (0.54)
 with little evidence of inbreeding. To explain the level of heterogygosity
 and lack of inbreeding within the St. John population, three hypotheses
 are proposed, including the effect of intrinsic biological traits within
 the population, a recent infusion of highly heterogeneous loci from North
 American populations, and a consistent level of immigration from a nearby
 island. Additional work is needed to further understand the genetic
 history of the St. John and regional deer populations.
description: St. John
 is part of the US Virgin Islands which includes St. John, St. Thomas, St.
 Croix, and Water Island. St. Thomas is the nearest island which also
 contains deer (Figure 1). Virgin Islands National (VINP) park lies on the
 island of St. John and comprises 60% of the landmass of the island. VINP
 protects one of the largest and most mature tracts of secondary dry forest
 in the eastern Caribbean (Ray et al. 1998). The island vegetation is
 largely represented by low-to-mid elevation dry scrub forest on soils with
 fairly low soil nutrient content (Oswalt et al. 2006) and is considered
 marginal habitat for deer. A severe drought was present on St. John and
 the surrounding region that lasted for the duration of 2015 and caused
 water, food, and environmental stress to the St. John deer population
 (Nelson et al. 2017). During the drought, deer showed signs of stress such
 as highly elevated tick and mange levels, muscular atrophy, poor coat
 quality, weight loss, lethargy, reduced reproduction, and death (Reuter
 and Nelson 2018). DNA samples were collected
 in two ways, either by collecting hair samples from deer while they were
 anesthetized, or by collecting DNA from fecal samples. The data were collected
 within three separate field site visits, all within the years
 2015-2016.  Sample collection was
 restricted to certain areas because of the availability of access trails,
 but major portions of the small island (Figure
 1). To collect hair samples,
 adult deer were anesthetized using butorphanol, azaperone, and
 medetomidine (BAM, Wildlife Pharmaceuticals, Windsor, Colorado, USA). Only
 adult does and bucks were immobilized for this project, no pregnant deer
 or fawns were used. Vitals monitored included heart rate, respiratory
 rate, mucous membrane color, body temperature, time to recumbency, and
 recovery. Following hair collection and after examination, the anesthesia
 was reversed with 2–3 mL of atipamezole (25 mg/mL) and 0.5 mL of
 naltrexone (50 mg/mL, Wildlife Pharmaceuticals). Deer recovered to
 standing with full stability within five minutes (Reuter and Nelson 2018).
 Hair samples were individually labelled and placed in coin envelopes in
 frozen storage until analysis. Fecal DNA samples were
 collected only from freshly deposited fecal samples with the deer in view.
 Several toothpicks were rubbed gently over the surface of the fecal sample
 for each sample collected. The samples were allowed to dry and placed in a
 coin envelopes in frozen storage until analysis. Research on live animals
 followed ASM guidelines (Sikes et al. 2016) and was completed under
 Scientific Research and Collection permit VIIS-2016-SCI-0026 for the USVI
 National Park and the University of Colorado Boulder and the National Park
 Service Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (1602.01-15Mar2016).
 DNA was extracted from both
 the hair samples using QIAGEN DNeasy Blood and Tissue kits and following
 QIAGEN’s tissue protocol. All hair samples yielded at least 10 guard hair
 roots (Paetkau 2003). A standard set of 21 microsatellite markers that are
 used for parentage certification in game farming applications, and which
 were found originally in populations of mainland deer from North Carolina,
 Wisconsin, and Texas, were amplified for the 80 adult deer sampled on St.
 John (Wildlife Genetics International, Inc.).
 Individuals with
 &gt;10 genotyped
 microsatellites (N = 42, all 21 microsatellites amplified for 23
 individuals) were analyzed using GENEPOP
 (Ver. 4.2) (Raymond and Rousset 1995; Rousset 2008) to determine number of
 alleles per locus, observed heterozygosity, and inbreeding coefficient
 (F<sub>IS</sub>) for comparison to non-island populations of white-tailed deer.
description: Missing value are indicated as -9.