Radiocaesium contamination of wild boar (Sus scrofa) still achieves several ten thousands Bq kg fresh weight (FW) in some areas of Germany, concurrently exhibiting an extraordinary variability. In the Bavarian Forest, for instance, activity levels ranged between 82 and 40,000 Bq kg FW in 2004, with maximum and minimum values occurring at almost the same location within one week (Fielitz, 2005)....

Over the past decade, there has been increasing interest in the application of reproductive technology to the conservation and management of natural populations of deer. The application of assisted reproduction technologies within natural population of deer is in its infancy. However, its future potential is enormous, particularly in relation to genetic management or conservation. This paper re...

Surprisingly little is known about the role of acoustic cues in mammal female mate choice. Here, we examine the response of female red deer (Cervus elaphus) to male roars in which an acoustic cue to body size, the formants, has been re-scaled to simulate different size callers. Our results show that oestrous red deer hinds prefer roars simulating larger callers and constitute the first evidence...

Anaplasma phagocytophilum is a veterinary and medical tick-borne pathogen of vertebrates which invades granulocytes. The potential reservoirs of Anaplasma include game animals and small mammals. The aim ofthis study was to gain insight into the variability ofnucleotide sequences of ribosomal and selected protein-coding genes (ankA, msp4 and the groESL heat-shock protein operon) present in isola...

The red deer (Cervus elaphus) is an iconic species in Scotland and, due to its value as a game species, an important element of the Scottish rural economy. The native status of this species is sometimes questioned because of many recorded introductions of nonnative deer in the past that were an attempt to improve trophy size. In this study, we assessed the impact of past introductions on the ge...

Twenty-seven species of the genus Onchocerca (Nematoda; Filarioidea) can cause a vector-borne parasitic disease called onchocercosis. Most Onchocerca species infect wild and domestic ungulates or the dog, and one species causes river blindness in humans mainly in tropical Africa. The European red deer (Cervus e. elaphus) is host to four species, which are transmitted by blackflies (simuliids) o...