Pedigree-free quantitative genetic approach provides evidence for heritability of movement tactics in wild roe deer

Assessing the evolutionary potential of animal populations in the wild is
crucial to understanding how they may respond to selection mediated by
rapid environmental change (e.g. habitat loss and fragmentation). A
growing number of studies have investigated the adaptive role of
behaviour, but assessments of its genetic basis in a natural setting
remain scarce. We combined intensive biologging technology with
genome-wide data and a pedigree-free quantitative genetic approach to
quantify repeatability, heritability and evolvability for a suite of
behaviours related to the risk avoidance-resource acquisition trade-off in
a wild roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) population inhabiting a
heterogeneous, human-dominated landscape. These traits, linked to the
stress response, movement and space-use behaviour, were all moderately to
highly repeatable. Furthermore, the repeatable among-individual component
of variation in these traits was partly due to additive genetic variance,
with heritability estimates ranging from 0.19±0.07 to 0.71±0.11 and
evolvability ranging from 1.1 to 4.3%. Changes in the trait mean can
therefore occur under hypothetical directional selection over just a few
generations. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first empirical
demonstration of additive genetic variation in space-use behaviour in a
free-ranging population based on genomic relatedness data. We conclude
that wild animal populations may have the potential to adjust their
spatial behaviour to human-driven environmental modifications through
micro-evolutionary change.