Capreolus

Last updated

Capreolus
Capreolus capreolus 2 Jojo.jpg
A male and a female European roe deer
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Family: Cervidae
Subfamily: Capreolinae
Tribe: Capreolini
Genus: Capreolus
Gray, 1821
Type species
Cervus capreolus
Species
Young roe deer Young roe deer.jpg
Young roe deer

Capreolus is a genus of deer, the roe deer.

Etymology

English roe is from Old English ra or , from raha, from Proto-Germanic *raikhaz, cognate to Old Norse ra, Old Saxon reho, Middle Dutch and Dutch ree, Old High German reh, German Reh. It is perhaps ultimately derived from a PIE root *rei-, meaning "streaked, spotted or striped". [1] [2]

Contents

The word is attested on the 5th-century Caistor-by-Norwich astragalus -a roe deer talus bone, written in Elder Futhark as ᚱᚨᛇᚺᚨᚾ, transliterated as raïhan. [3] [4]

In the English language this animal was originally simply called a 'roe', but over time the word 'roe' has become a qualifier and the creature is now usually called a 'roe deer'. [5]

The Koiné Greek name πύγαργος, transliterated 'pygargos', mentioned in the Septuagint and the works of various writers such as Hesychius, Herodotus and later Pliny, [6] was originally thought to refer to this species (in many European translations of the Bible), although it is now more often believed to refer to the addax. It is derived from the words pyge 'buttocks' and argo 'white'.

The taxonomic name Capreolus is derived from capra or caprea, meaning 'billy goat', with the diminutive suffix -olus. The meaning of this word in Latin is not entirely clear: it may have meant 'ibex' or 'chamois'. [7] The roe deer was also known as capraginus or capruginus in Latin. [8]

Systematics

Roe deer are most closely related to the water deer, and, counterintuitively, the three species in this group, called the Capreolini, are most closely related to moose. [9]

Although roe deer were once classified as belonging to the Cervinae subfamily, they are now classified as part of the Odocoileinae, which includes the deer from the New World. [10]

Palaeontology

Roe deer are thought to have evolved from a species in the Eurasian genus Procapreolus , [9] [11] with some 10 species occurring from the Late Miocene to the Early Pleistocene, which moved from the east to Central Europe over the millennia, where Procapreolus cusanus occurred, [11] also classified as Capreolus cusanus . It may not have evolved from C. cusanus, however, because the two extant species split from each other 1.375 and 2.75 Myr ago, [12] and the western species first appeared in Europe 600 thousand years ago. [13]

The Siberian roe deer had split into two subspecies, C. pygargus pygargus and C. pygargus tianschanicus in the interval between 229 and 462.3 thousand years ago. [12]

The distribution of the European species has fluctuated often since entering Europe. During some periods during the Last Glacial Period it was present in central Europe, but during the Last Glacial Maximum it retreated to refugia in the Iberian Peninsula (two refugia here), Southern France, Italy (likely two), the Balkans and the Carpathians. When the last ice age ended, the species initially abruptly expanded north of the Alps to Germany during the Greenland Interstadial, 12.5–10.8 thousand years ago. During the cooling of the Younger Dryas, 10.8–10 thousand years ago, the species appears to have disappeared again from this region. It reappeared 9.7–9.5 thousand years ago, reaching northern central Europe. The modern population in this area appears to have recolonised it from the Carpathians and/or further east, but not the Balkans or other refugia. This is opposite to the red deer, which recolonised Europe from Iberia. There has been much admixture of these populations where they meet, also possibly due to human intervention in some cases. [13] It had become a very common species by the Late Neolithic, as farming by humans spread across the continent, which modified the environment so that more open habitat was created from the woodland, which advantaged the creatures. [14]

Species

There are at least two extant species:

Genus Capreolus Gray, 1821 – two species
Common nameScientific name and subspeciesRangeSize and ecologyIUCN status and estimated population
European roe deer

Capreolus (js)11.jpg
Male
Chevrette (51289788773).jpg
Female

Capreolus capreolus
(Linnaeus, 1758)

Four subspecies
  • Capreolus capreolus capreolus(Linnaeus, 1758)
  • Capreolus capreolus canus Miller, 1910
  • Capreolus capreolus caucasicusNikolay Yakovlevich Dinnik, 1910 [5]
  • Capreolus capreolus italicusEnrico Festa, 1925
Scotland south to the Mediterranean and east to Iran and the Caucasus.
Capreolus-capreolus-map.png
Size:

Habitat:

Diet:
 LC 


Siberian roe deer

Paozikun530.jpg
Male
Kosulia 1.JPG
Female

Capreolus pygargus
(Pallas, 1771)

Two subspecies
  • C. p. pygargus
  • C. p. tianschanicus
Urals south to the Caucasus and east to Manchuria.
Leefgebied ree.JPG
Size:

Habitat:

Diet:
 LC 


Both species have seen their populations increase, both around the 1930s. In recent times, since the 1960s, [10] the two species have become sympatric where their distributions meet, and there is now a broad 'hybridization zone' running from the right hand side of the Volga River up to eastern Poland. It is extremely difficult for hunters to know which species they have bagged. [15] In line with Haldane's rule, female hybrids of the two taxa are fertile while male hybrids are not. [13] [16] Hybrids are much larger than normal and a cesarean section was sometimes needed to birth the fawns, becoming larger than their mothers at the age of 4–5 months. F1 hybrid males may be sterile, but backcrosses with the females is possible. [16]

22% of the animals around Moscow carry the mtDNA of the European roe deer and 78% of the Siberian. In the Volgograd region the European deer predominates. [15] In Stavropol and Dnepropetrovsk regions of Ukraine most of the roe are Siberian. [15] [17] In northeastern Poland there is also evidence of introgression with the Siberian deer, which was likely introduced. [18] In some cases, such as around Moscow, former introductions of European stock is likely responsible. [15] It is thought that during the Middle Ages the two species were kept apart due to hunting pressure and an abundance of predators, the different populations may have met in the period before that, but during the Ice Age they were also kept apart. [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roe deer</span> Species of deer

The roe deer, also known as the roe, western roe deer, or European roe, is a species of deer. The male of the species is sometimes referred to as a roebuck. The roe is a small deer, reddish and grey-brown, and well-adapted to cold environments. The species is widespread in Europe, from the Mediterranean to Scandinavia, from Scotland to the Caucasus, and east as far as northern Iran.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eastern wolf</span> Subspecies of carnivore

The eastern wolf, also known as the timber wolf, Algonquin wolf and eastern timber wolf, is a canine of debated taxonomy native to the Great Lakes region and southeastern Canada. It is considered to be either a unique subspecies of gray wolf or red wolf or a separate species from both. Many studies have found the eastern wolf to be the product of ancient and recent genetic admixture between the gray wolf and the coyote, while other studies have found some or all populations of the eastern wolf, as well as coyotes, originally separated from a common ancestor with the wolf over 1 million years ago and that these populations of the eastern wolf may be the same species as or a closely related species to the red wolf of the Southeastern United States. Regardless of its status, it is regarded as unique and therefore worthy of conservation with Canada citing the population in eastern Canada as being the eastern wolf population subject to protection.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kazakh Steppe</span> Steppe region in Kazakhstan

The Kazakh Steppe, also called the Great Dala, is a vast region of open grassland in Central Asia, covering areas in northern Kazakhstan and adjacent areas of Russia. It lies east of the Pontic–Caspian steppe and west of the Emin Valley steppe, with which it forms the central and western part of the Eurasian steppe. The Kazakh Steppe is an ecoregion of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome in the Palearctic realm. Before the mid-19th century, it was called the Kirghiz steppe, 'Kirghiz' being an old Russian word for the Kazakhs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siberian roe deer</span> Species of deer

The Siberian roe deer, eastern roe deer, or Asian roe deer, is a species of roe deer found in northeastern Asia. In addition to Siberia and Mongolia, it is found in Kazakhstan, the Tian Shan Mountains of Kyrgyzstan, eastern Tibet, the Korean Peninsula and forested regions of northern China.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boreal (age)</span> First of Blytt–Sernander sequence of north European climatic phase

In paleoclimatology of the Holocene, the Boreal was the first of the Blytt–Sernander sequence of north European climatic phases that were originally based on the study of Danish peat bogs, named for Axel Blytt and Rutger Sernander, who first established the sequence. In peat bog sediments, the Boreal is also recognized by its characteristic pollen zone. It was preceded by the Younger Dryas, the last cold snap of the Pleistocene, and followed by the Atlantic, a warmer and moister period than our most recent climate. The Boreal, transitional between the two periods, varied a great deal, at times having within it climates like today's.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hybrid speciation</span> Form of speciation involving hybridization between two different species

Hybrid speciation is a form of speciation where hybridization between two different species leads to a new species, reproductively isolated from the parent species. Previously, reproductive isolation between two species and their parents was thought to be particularly difficult to achieve, and thus hybrid species were thought to be very rare. With DNA analysis becoming more accessible in the 1990s, hybrid speciation has been shown to be a somewhat common phenomenon, particularly in plants. In botanical nomenclature, a hybrid species is also called a nothospecies. Hybrid species are by their nature polyphyletic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capreolinae</span> Subfamily of mammals

The Capreolinae, Odocoileinae, or the New World deer are a subfamily of deer. Alternatively, they are known as the telemetacarpal deer, due to their bone structure being different from the plesiometacarpal deer subfamily Cervinae. The telemetacarpal deer maintain their distal lateral metacarpals, while the plesiometacarpal deer maintain only their proximal lateral metacarpals. The Capreolinae are believed to have originated in the Middle Miocene, between 7.7 and 11.5 million years ago, in Central Asia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Altai wapiti</span> Subspecies of deer

The Altai wapiti, sometimes called the Altai elk, is a subspecies of Cervus canadensis found in the forest hills of southern Siberia, northwestern Mongolia, and northern Xinjiang province of China. It is different from the Tian Shan wapiti in being smaller and paler in color.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Persian fallow deer</span> Species of deer

The Persian fallow deer is a deer species once native to all of the Middle East, but currently only living in Iran and Israel. It was reintroduced in Israel. It has been listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List since 2008. After a captive breeding program, the population has rebounded from only a handful of deer in the 1960s to over a thousand individuals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fauna of Wales</span> Animals living in Wales

Fauna of Wales includes marine and land animals, birds and reptiles that are resident, visitors or have been introduced to Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Denisova Cave</span> Cave and archaeological site in Russia

Denisova Cave is a cave in the Bashelaksky Range of the Altai mountains, Siberian Federal District, Russia. The cave has provided items of great paleoarchaeological and paleontological interest. Bone fragments of the Denisova hominin originate from the cave, including artifacts dated to around 40,000 BP. Remains of a 32,000-year-old prehistoric species of horse have also been found in the cave.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eastern coyote</span> Coywolf native to the northeastern United States and eastern Canada

The eastern coyote is a wild North American canine hybrid with both coyote and wolf parentage. The hybridization likely first occurred in the Great Lakes region, as western coyotes moved east. It was first noticed during the early 1930s to the late 1940s, and likely originated in the aftermath of the extirpation of the gray wolf and eastern wolf in southeastern Ontario, Labrador and Quebec, thus allowing coyotes to colonize the former wolf ranges, and mix with the remnant wolf populations. This hybrid is smaller than the eastern wolf and holds smaller territories, but is larger and holds more extensive home ranges than the typical western coyote.

Wild Field is a 300 ha nature reserve near the city of Tula in Tula Oblast in the European part of Russia, approximately 250 km (150 mi) south of Moscow. It was established in 2012 by Russian scientists Sergey Zimov and Nikita Zimov as a companion to Pleistocene Park in Siberia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Khangai Mountains conifer forests</span>

The Khangai Mountains conifer forests ecoregion covers the northern slopes of the Khangai Mountains in central Mongolia. The montane taiga supports a populations of elk, deer, wild boar, wolves, and brown bear. The diversity of plants and animals has benefited from the relative isolation and low human population of the area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Central Korean deciduous forests</span> Ecoregion in Korea

The Central Korea deciduous forests is a temperate broadleaf and mixed forests ecoregion on the Korean Peninsula, covering portions of South Korea and North Korea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alps conifer and mixed forests</span> Ecoregion in Central Europe

The Alps conifer and mixed forests is a temperate coniferous forest ecoregion in central Europe. It extends along the Alps mountains through portions of France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Liechtenstein, Austria, and Slovenia. The ecoregion extends from the lower slopes of the Alps to its peaks, which include Mont Blanc, at 4,809 m (15,778 ft) the highest peak in the Alps.

References

  1. Harper, Douglas (2020). "Roe". Online Etymological Dictionary. Douglas Harper. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
  2. Johnson, Mary Lynch (1927). A Modern English - Old English Dictionary (PhD Dissertation). Meredith College. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
  3. "Caistor-by-Norwich, astragalus" (in German). RUNES: Forshungsproject der Akadmeia der Wissenschaften zu Gottingen. Archived from the original on 18 October 2019. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  4. Waxenberger, Gaby (2006). "The Yew-Rune and the Runes Haglaz, Gyfu, Ior, and Is in the Old English Corpus". In Stoklund, Marie; Nielsen, Michael Lerche; et al. (eds.). Runes and their secrets: Studies in Runology. Museum Tusculanum Press. pp. 385–414. ISBN   87-635-0428-6. pp. 389-91.
  5. 1 2 Lister, Adrian M.; Grubb, P.; Summer, S. R. M. (1998). "Taxonomy, morphology and evolution of European roe deer". In Andersen, Reidar; Duncan, P.; Linnell, John D. C. (eds.). The European roe deer: the biology of success. Oslo: Scandinavian University Press. pp. 23–46.
  6. Hofmann, Johann Jacob (1698). "Pygargus". Lexicon Universale . Leiden: Jacob Hackium et al.
  7. Lewis, Charlton Thomas; Short, Charles (1879). A Latin Dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
  8. Gaffiot, Félix (1934). "Capraginus". Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français (in French). Paris: Hachette. p. 261.
  9. 1 2 Heckeberg, Nicola S. (18 February 2020). "The systematics of the Cervidae: a total evidence approach". PeerJ. 8: e8114. doi: 10.7717/peerj.8114 . PMC   7034380 . PMID   32110477.
  10. 1 2 3 Hewison, A. J. M.; Danilkin, A. A. (2001). "Evidence for separate specific status of European (Capreolus capreolus) and Siberian (C. pygargus) roe deer". Mammalian Biology - Zeitschrift für Säugetierkunde. 66: 13–21. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
  11. 1 2 Valli, Andrea M. F. (1 February 2010). "Dispersion of the genus Procapreolus and the relationships between Procapreolus cusanus and the roe deer (Capreolus)". Quaternary International. 212 (2): 80–85. Bibcode:2010QuInt.212...80V. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2008.11.002.
  12. 1 2 Petrosian, V. G.; Tokarskaia, O. N.; Danilkin, A. A.; Ryskov, A. P. (June 2002). "[Quantitative analysis of genetic parameters in populations of European (Capreolus capreolus L.) and Siberian (Capreolus pygargus Pall.) roe deer with RAPD markers]". Genetika (in Russian). 38 (6): 812–819. PMID   12138780.
  13. 1 2 3 Sommer, Robert S.; Fahlke, J. M.; Schmölcke, Ulrich; Benecke, N.; Zachos, F. E. (October 2008). "Quaternary history of the European roe deer Capreolus capreolus". Mammal Review. 39 (1): 1–16. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2907.2008.00137.x . Retrieved 20 November 2020.
  14. Boyle, K. V. (2006). "The Roe Deer: Conservation of a Native Species". In Serjeantson, D.; Field, D. (eds.). Neolithic wild game animals in Western Europe: The question of hunting. Oxford: Oxbow Books. pp. 10–23. ISBN   978-1-84217-214-8.
  15. 1 2 3 4 Plakhina, Daria Aleksandrovna; Zvychainaya, E. Yu.; Kholodova, Marina Vladimirovna; Danilkin, Alexey (July 2014). "Identification of European (Capreolus capreolus L.) and Siberian (C. pygargus Pall.) roe deer hybrids by microsatellite marker analysis". Russian Journal of Genetics. 50 (7): 757–762. doi:10.1134/S1022795414070151. PMID   25720144. S2CID   7659420 . Retrieved 21 November 2020.
  16. 1 2 Stubbe, H.; Brukhgol'ts, Z. (1979). "[Experiments of hybridization of the roe and tartarian deer Capreolus capreolus capreolus x Capreolus capreolus pygargus]". Zoologicheskiĭ Zhurnal (in Russian). 58 (9): 1398–1403. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
  17. Danilkin, Alexey; Plakhina, Daria Aleksandrovna; Zvychaynaya, E. Y.; Domnich, A. V. (November 2017). "Siberian Roe Deer (Capreolus pygargus Pallas, 1771) in Ukraine: Analysis of the Mitochondrial and Nuclear DNA". Biology Bulletin. 44 (6): 575–583. doi:10.1134/S106235901706005X. S2CID   3542209.
  18. Olano-Marin, Juanita; Plis, Kamila; Sönnichsen, Leif; Borowik, Tomasz; Niedziałkowska, Magdalena; Jędrzejewska, Bogumiła (1 October 2014). "Weak Population Structure in European Roe Deer (Capreolus capreolus) and Evidence of Introgressive Hybridization with Siberian Roe Deer (C. pygargus) in Northeastern Poland". PLOS ONE. 9 (10): e109147. Bibcode:2014PLoSO...9j9147O. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0109147 . PMC   4182808 . PMID   25271423.