Endocranial volume measurements from 1078 red deer on the Isle of Rum, Scotland, 1972-2013

Research on relative brain size in mammals suggests that increases in brain size may generate benefits to survival and costs to fecundity: comparative studies of mammals have shown that interspecific differences in relative brain size are positively correlated with longevity and negatively with fecundity. However, as yet, no studies of mammals have investigated whether similar relationships exist within species, nor whether individual differences in brain size within a wild population are heritable. Here we show that, in a wild population of red deer (Cervus elaphus), relative endocranial volume was heritable (h2 = 63%; 95% credible intervals, CI=50-76%). In females, it was positively correlated with longevity and lifetime reproductive success, though there was no evidence that it was associated with fecundity. In males, endocranial volume was not related to longevity, lifetime breeding success, or fecundity.
***Abstract from: Logan CJ, Kruuk L, Stanley R, Thompson A, Clutton-Brock TH. 2016. Endocranial volume is heritable and is associated with longevity and fitness in a wild mammal. Royal Society Open Science 3:160622. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.160622 ***Please cite the published article when referring to this data.

***NOTE: These files contain data derived from the long term field project monitoring individual red deer on the Isle of Rum and their environment. This is a request to please let us know if you use them. Several people have spent the best part of their careers collecting the data. If you plan to analyse the data, there are a number of reasons why it would be very helpful if you could contact Corina Logan ([e-mail]) / Josephine Pemberton ([e-mail]) before doing so:
1) Occasionally we discover and correct errors in the data.
2) The data are complex and workers who do not know the study system may benefit from advice when interpreting it.
3) At any one time quite a few people within the existing project collaboration are analysing data from this project. Someone else may already be conducting the analysis you have in mind and it is desirable to prevent
duplication of effort.
4) In order to maintain funding for the project, every few years we have to write proposals for original analyses to funding agencies. It is therefore very helpful for those running the project to know what data analyses are in progress.

If you are interested in analysing the detailed project data in any depth you may find it helpful to have our full relational database rather than the files available here. If so, then we have a simple process for bringing you onto the project as a collaborator.***