Abstract
Previous studies on patterns in ungulate size variations have emphasized the effect of a particular environmental factor such as Bergmann’s rule and the island rule. However, although multiple environmental factors may influence the body size, these studies focused on a single factor, and various measurements that may be influenced by different environmental factors (at least partly) were used as indices of body size. In this study, we used several skull and limb measurements to examine size variations among island populations of sika deer (Cervus nippon) in southern Japan considering the effects of multiple environmental factors. We found that all measurements differed markedly between populations. We focused on the skull and limb condylobasal length (CBL) and metacarpal length because they had the most important variations among the populations and the largest sample sizes. The common environmental factors influencing CBL and metacarpal length were island area and precipitation. Since these environmental factors reflect the availability of food resources, the causal factor of body size variation may be food resources. Interpopulation variation in metacarpal length was greater than that of CBL, indicating that metacarpal length may be affected by additional factors besides the common factors shared with CBL. Specific environmental factors influencing relative (CBL adjusted) metacarpal length were precipitation and slope. A common direct cause of those environmental factors was discussed in relation to topography. Analyses of phenotypic variation using multiple measurements with multiple environmental factors are useful to gain insight into underlying causes and can lead to identification of a measurement-specific variation with a specific driving force.
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Acknowledgments
We thank members of the hunting clubs at each of our study sites for helping with sample collection. The Primate Research Institute of Kyoto University allowed us to use their facilities at the Yakushima Field Research Station and members of the Institute also helped us in collecting samples. We thank M. Izawa, T. Shiroma, T. Doi, A. Endo, M. Baba, Ryukyu University, and the Kita-Kyushu Museum of Natural History and Human History for providing access to samples; H. Uno, T. Mano, and the Hokkaido Institute of Environmental Sciences for providing a place to prepare osteal specimens; Kanagatake Elementary School and the Sediment Control Division of Kagoshima Prefecture for providing weather data; the Agricultural Administration Division of Nagasaki Prefecture for providing deer density data; T. Akasaka for helping with GIS analysis; T. Kubo and H. Iijima for advice on statistical analyses; E. Dyson for help with the English language editing; O. Kishida for discussion and comments on the manuscript; H. Abe, T. Koizumi, and N. Ohtaishi for their helpful comments; and J-M. Gaillard, C. Bonenfant, and anonymous reviewers for their suggestions to improve the manuscript. This study was supported by a Grant-in-Aid from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Fellows (22-2966) and by a grant from the Global COE Program of the Graduate School of Environmental Science, Hokkaido University, to C. Terada.
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Communicated by Jean-Michel Gaillard.
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Terada, C., Tatsuzawa, S. & Saitoh, T. Ecological correlates and determinants in the geographical variation of deer morphology. Oecologia 169, 981–994 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-012-2270-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-012-2270-7