Genetic analysis of red deer (Cervus elaphus) administrative management units in a human-dominated landscape - patterns of genetic diversity, population structure and gene flow

Red deer (Cervus elaphus) throughout central Europe are impacted by different anthropogenic activities including habitat fragmentation, selective hunting, and translocations. This has substantial influences on genetic diversity and the long-term conservation of local populations of this species. Here we use genetic samples from 480 red deer individuals to assess the genetic diversity and differentiation of the 12 administrative management units located in Schleswig Holstein, the northernmost federal state in Germany. We applied multiple analytical approaches and show that the history of local populations (i.e., translocations, culling of individuals outside of designated red deer zones, and anthropogenic infrastructures) has led to comparably low levels of genetic diversity. The mean expected heterozygosity was below 0.6 and we observed on average 4.2 alleles across 12 microsatellite loci. Effective population sizes below the recommended level of 50 were estimated for multiple local pop..., , , # Genetic analysis of red deer (Cervus elaphus) administrative management units in a human-dominated landscape

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.9s4mw6mbp](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.9s4mw6mbp)

Genetic data of 480 red deer (*Cervus elaphus*) individuals used throughout this study as well as information on the used samples.

## Description of the data and file structure

***gendata_reddeer_northern_germany.csv***

Biallelic dataset of 12 microsatellite markers (*INRA6*, *C143*, *T115, C180*, *C229, T107*, *Haut14*, *ILSTS06*, *BM757, CSSM14*, *FSBH*, and *BM1818*) for 480 individuals from Northern Germany. The first column indicates the ID for each individual. Following that, there are two columns for each marker site, representing the two allele expressions. Missing values are denoted by \"NA\".

**samples_final_info_reddeer_northern_germany.csv**

Metadata for the sampled red deer individuals. Alongside the ID, the Management Unit from which the sample originates, the hunting year (b...