Data from: Using genetic tools to estimate the prevalence of non-native red deer (Cervus elaphus) in a Western European population

Game species like the red deer have been subjected to anthropogenic impacts for centuries. Translocations are often carried out—sometimes illegally—not only for sporting purposes, but also to increase trophy quality, reduce inbreeding, or mitigate bottlenecks after excessive persecution. Apart from the blurring of large-scale genetic structure, translocations without adequate quarantine measure risk introducing pathogens into potentially immunologically naïve populations. It is therefore important to understand the frequency of clandestine translocations. Identification of non-autochthonous animals and their potential origin is often difficult and, in red deer, has been hampered by the lack of large-scale genotypic datasets for comparison. In the present study, we make use of a recently published European-wide microsatellite dataset to detect and quantify the presence of non-autochthonous red deer in a large population sample (n = 1,780) from Central Europe (Belgium). Using factorial correspondence analysis, assignment tests and Bayesian clustering algorithms we arrive at an estimate of 3.7% non-autochthonous animals (or their descendants). Some of these animals were assigned to a nearby French population and may have immigrated into Belgium naturally, but the large majority must have been introduced by humans. Our analysis pointed to the British Isles and Germany/Poland as the potential origin of many introduced deer, regions known to have been source populations for translocations in Europe and beyond. We found evidence for recreational hunters using carcasses from farmed deer to fulfill mandatory hunting quotas. Our study is the first to quantify the extent of human-mediated introductions in a European game species at such a large scale with large and representative sample sizes.马鹿（red deer）这类猎用物种，数百年来始终遭受人为活动的干扰。种群易地转移（translocation）活动屡见不鲜，其中不乏非法操作；此类活动的目的不仅限于狩猎娱乐，还包括提升战利品品质、降低近交衰退风险，或是缓解过度猎捕后出现的种群瓶颈效应。除破坏种群的大范围遗传结构外，未采取充分检疫措施的易地转移活动，还存在将病原体引入免疫易感种群的风险。因此，摸清非法易地转移的发生频率至关重要。鉴定非本土个体及其潜在来源地往往难度极大；就马鹿而言，这类研究还因缺乏可用于比对的大规模基因型数据集而受阻。本研究利用近期公开的欧洲范围微卫星（microsatellite）数据集，对来自中欧比利时的大型种群样本（n = 1,780）中的非本土马鹿个体进行检测与量化分析。本研究通过因子对应分析、个体归属测试以及贝叶斯聚类算法，估算出样本中非本土马鹿（及其后代）的占比为3.7%。其中部分个体被归类至邻近的法国种群，可能是自然迁入比利时的，但绝大多数应是人为引入的。分析结果显示，多数引入个体的潜在来源地为不列颠群岛以及德国/波兰地区；这些区域向来是欧洲乃至全球范围内易地转移活动的种源种群所在地。本研究还发现，部分休闲狩猎者会利用养殖鹿的躯体来完成法定狩猎配额。本研究首次以大规模且具有代表性的样本量，量化了欧洲猎用物种中人为介导的物种引入规模。