Rum Deer Research

Parasite-mediated inbreeding depression in wild red deer Heredity - Parasite-mediated inbreeding depression in wild red deer

New paper alert! In my second first-author paper from my work on the Isle of Rum Red Deer Project @rumdeerresearch.bsky.social we show, for only the second time in a wild population, that parasites mediate inbreeding depression.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A Red Deer stag we call Hodges roaring and 2 hinds in oestrus we call Baru and Squilla

Hodges has two oestrus hinds today, Baru and Squilla
#mammals #deer #science #evobio

Hannah Lemon presenting a slide showing networks of mothers and their offspring, where offspring inherited some of the social partners of the mother

Hannah Lemon gave a very clear and interesting talk about social inheritance of social relationships from mothers to their daughters and sons (to a lesser extent) in the Rum red deer @rumdeerresearch.bsky.social.

@behaviour2025.bsky.social @asab.org

Population density drives increased parasitism via greater exposure and reduced resource availability in wild red deer | Parasitology | Cambridge Core Population density drives increased parasitism via greater exposure and reduced resource availability in wild red deer

Thrilled to share my first first-author paper from my work with the Isle of Rum Red Deer Project! @rumdeerresearch.bsky.social

We found that host density acts to increase parasitism through two mechanisms: increased exposure and increased susceptibility.

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Peridot19 lying ruminating

Wisdom11, Peridot19's father

Peridot19 is also back. His father is Wisdom11 (now dead), the stag with the most offspring by far in our group of study animals.

Coypu19 looking impressive

Longbeys, Coypu19's dad in the year he was conceived

Coypu19, left and his father Longbeys in 2018, the year he was conceived.

Stag Coypu19 with big antlers ready for the rut

Coypu19 looking impressive for his age

Coypu19 is back in the study area for the rut and he is looking very impressive for a 6 year old.

Due to storm damage and blocked tracks we will have to walk 5 miles to the study site to check on infrastructure there and see how the deer coped with Storm Floris!

Photo of the calf catching team in 2025 at Kilmory, Isle of Rum

Calving Team 2025 1st instalment @celestineadelmant.bsky.social Eve Morris @seanofrum.bsky.social @sarah-dobson.bsky.social Prof Josephine Pemberton and Ali Morris @isleofrum.bsky.social

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A picture of brown deer on a brown hillside in our study area.

At this time of year, it is very difficult to spot deer. How many can you make out in this picture?

Hallival and Askival creating their own clouds in an otherwise perfect blue sky

A beautiful, but chilly morning here in the study area, although Askival just has to create a cloud all of it's own.

Kilmory Glen in flood

After 48hrs of wet and stormy weather, we have ventured out in a mere gale to find the Glen flooded.

Uhura, an 8 year year old red deer hind grazing

Uhura watching me go by. She is now part of a family whose names are influenced by Star Trek characters.

A bit of snow at the highest point of today's census route

Making the most of the cold east wind weather to get another census done. A bit of snow at the highest point

Graph showing the advancement of red deer birth dates since 1970

A red deer hind with a new born calf

🧪#mammals The graph in the image below is an updated version of the one in the above paper with new data points for the most recent years.

The role of selection and evolution in changing parturition date in a red deer population Adaptive genetic evolution and phenotypic plasticity both contribute to a two-week advancement of birth dates earlier in spring in a deer population subject to temperature warming over four decades.

The only actual data available on this point is from the long-term Isle of Rum study which shows the calving season has got earlier there by about two weeks since 1980 'The role of selection and evolution in changing parturition date in a red deer population’ journals.plos.org/plosbiology/... 🧪

Scottish Greens-led deer cull proposals axed after welfare concerns Members of the rural community said the proposals to change the female deer cull season presented animal welfare issues and could affect deer managers’ mental health.

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This recent article in The Scotsman newspaper @thescotsmanpaper.bsky.social perpetuates a statement in the Scottish Government's recent consultation on deer management that the calving season of red deer is getting later www.scotsman.com/hays-way/sco...

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New game released to understand how social networks and decision making change disease spread January 2025: Researchers from School of Biological Sciences have collaborated with Game Developers 'Then Try This' to create 'Nergal' - a game designed help understand how people's social networks an...

Researchers from Biology have collaborated with 'Then Try This' to create 'Nergal' - a game to help understand how social networks and decision-making, change how diseases spread through communities

Read more and play Nergal: edinburgh-infectious-diseases.ed.ac.uk/news-and-eve...

A Red Deer Stag on the Isle of Rum. Photo by Sean Morris

Genomic analysis reveals a polygenic architecture of antler morphology in wild red deer (Cervus elaphus) Paper by Peters, Huisman, Kruuk, Pemberton and @susanjohnston.bsky.social antler morphology is highly repeatable over an individual's lifetime 🧪 #mammals onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Fine-scale spatial variation in fitness, inbreeding, and inbreeding depression in a wild ungulate Abstract. Environmental stress can exacerbate inbreeding depression by amplifying differences between inbred and outbred individuals. In wild populations,

Fine-scale spatial variation in fitness, inbreeding, and inbreeding depression in a wild ungulate. Paper by @annamhew.bsky.social using Rum Deer Research data #science #mammals

academic.oup.com/evlett/advan...

Fine-scale spatial variation in fitness, inbreeding, and inbreeding depression in a wild ungulate Abstract. Environmental stress can exacerbate inbreeding depression by amplifying differences between inbred and outbred individuals. In wild populations,

Hewett: inbreeding depression in red deer varies over space and interacts with environmental conditions - stronger reduction in juvenile survival with harsh environment academic.oup.com/evlett/advan...

Thanks to my amazing supervisors: Josephine Pemberton and @susanjohnston.bsky.social , and my lovely co-authors too Greg Albery and @seanofrum.bsky.social and Ali Morris at @rumdeerresearch.bsky.social

Slightly surreal that the PhD is now 'officially' finished ... but who knows 😉

#mammals

A 6 year old hind lying on the left and her 2024 calf standing on the right. The hind has a pale blue darvic collar with a green circle pattern. The hind was born in 2018 to a female called Whelk.

Turritella and her 24 this morning

#mammals

A 9 year old female red deer on the right with her 2024 female calf on the left. The calf has a white darvic collar with a red diamond pattern. The hind is called Malabar and was born in 2015 to a hind called Karuka

Malabar and her 24 on the #isleofrum this morning #mammals

A red deer yearling female with a yellow darvic collar with a green X pattern. This study animal is the daughter of a hind called Slate born in 2023

A 12 year old red deer hind (female) with a yellow plastic cow collar and yellow ear tags. This study hind is called Slate and was born to a hind called Rubble

Slate and her 23 this morning