Summary of the observed heterozygosity (H) and allelic richness (AR) of the white-tailed deer population and in individual-based population genetic simulations of its introduction.

Different scenarios (Sc.) were simulated. Scenario A simulated the introduction in 1934 of three females and one male of either maximal (A1) or minimal initial heterozygosity (A2) in 14 loci, assuming their allelic richness per locus is equal to that observed in the current population. Scenario B explores the consequences of maximal allelic richness ( = 8) per locus in the founding population (H0 must be 1). Scenario C explores the consequences of a successful second introduction (2nd intr.) in 1949 of one male and three females, assumed to be all heterozygous and carrying novel alleles. All values are means and (in brackets), the 2.5- and 97.5-percentile of 1000 population replicates. Reported are the heterozygosity and allelic richness predicted by the model. Observed H was measured in 2009/2010 (Table 1). Vital rates were set to values which allowed the modelled population sizes to mimic the observed ones (Fig. 1).