Evolutionary units and Deer conservation (Ozotoceros bezoarticus Linnaeus, 1758) in Brazil

• Grant number: 19/07655-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): July 01, 2019
• Effective date (End): February 28, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Genetics - Animal Genetics
• Principal Investigator: José Maurício Barbanti Duarte
• Grantee: Rullian César Ribeiro
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias (FCAV). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Jaboticabal. Jaboticabal , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The Pampas Deer is a Neotropical cervid that can be found in open habitats from the South of Amazonas to Argentina. It is classified by the IUCN as "Near Threatened (NT)" due to habitat loss and other consequences related to anthropic interventions in the environment. Due to this situation, the National Plan for the Conservation of Endangered Cervidae suggests several actions to increase the knowledge about the relictual populations. One of the suggested actions is the development of studies that characterize the genetic variability of these populations. In the literature, we have a lack of knowledge about the sampled areas in Brazil, about the number of markers together analyzed and about the analyzes used to characterize these populations. The present work aims to sample and characterize the Pampas Deer populations throughout its distribution in Brazil. This characterization will be done through non-invasive sampling, based on fecal DNA extraction, providing broad and large sampling. For this, population genetics analyzes will be performed and five mitochondrial markers will be used, showing new perspectives for the populations of the species. In view of the above, we hypothesized that these populations are genetically structured, which could have occurred due to isolation by distance. The test of these hypotheses will imply in the proposition of actions for population management and definition of significant evolutionary units for conservationist purposes. (AU)