The Unusual Value of Long-Term Studies of Individuals: The Example of the Isle of Rum Red Deer Project

Long-term studies of individuals enable incisive investigations of questions across ecology and evolution. Here, we illustrate this claim by reference to our long-term study of red deer on the Isle of Rum, Scotland. This project has established many of the characteristics of social organization, selection, and population ecology typical of large, polygynous, seasonally breeding mammals, with wider implications for our understanding of sexual selection and the evolution of sex differences, as well as for their population dynamics and population management. As molecular genetic techniques have developed, the project has pivoted to investigate evolutionary genetic questions, also breaking new ground in this field. With ongoing advances in genomics and statistical approaches and the development of increasingly sophisticated ways to assay new phenotypic traits, the questions that long-term studies such as the red deer study can answer become both broader and ever more sophisticated. They also offer powerful means of understanding the effects of ongoing climate change on wild populations.

• Publication year

  2022

• Venue

  Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution and Systematics

• Publication date

  2022-11-02

• Fields of study

  Not labeled

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-012722-024041
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Genetic variance in fitness indicates rapid contemporary adaptive evolution in wild animals

  2022cited by this paper
• Maternal effects do not resolve the paradox of stasis in birth weight in a wild red deer populaton

  2022cited by this paper
• Genomic analysis reveals a polygenic architecture of antler morphology in wild red deer (Cervus elaphus)

  2021cited by this paper
• Gut microbiome pattern reflects healthy aging and predicts survival in humans

  2021cited by this paper
• Multiple spatial behaviours govern social network positions in a wild ungulate.

  2021cited by this paper
• Gut microbiome pattern reflects healthy ageing and predicts survival in humans

  2021cited by this paper
• The genome sequence of the red deer, Cervus elaphus Linnaeus 1758

  2021cited by this paper
• Trophic Level

  2021cited by this paper
• Social evolution in mammals

  2021cited by this paper
• Ageing red deer alter their spatial behaviour and become less social

  2021cited by this paper
• Using genomic prediction to detect microevolutionary change of a quantitative trait

  2021cited by this paper
• The genetic architecture of maternal effects across ontogeny in the red deer

  2020cited by this paper
• Genomic prediction in the wild: A case study in Soay sheep

  2020cited by this paper
• Genome Scan

  2020cited by this paper
• Fluctuating optimum and temporally variable selection on breeding date in birds and mammals

  2020cited by this paper
• Inbreeding Depression

  2019cited by this paper
• Consistent within‐individual plasticity is sufficient to explain temperature responses in red deer reproductive traits

  2019cited by this paper
• The role of selection and evolution in changing parturition date in a red deer population

  2019cited by this paper
• Fitness costs of parasites explain multiple life history tradeoffs in a wild mammal

  2019cited by this paper
• Genomic Prediction

  2019cited by this paper
• Genomic basis of European ash tree resistance to ash dieback fungus

  2019cited by this paper
• Declining home range area predicts reduced late-life survival in two wild ungulate populations.

  2018cited by this paper
• Seasonality of helminth infection in wild red deer varies between individuals and between parasite taxa

  2018cited by this paper
• Evolution and Selection of Quantitative Traits

  2018cited by this paper
• A Genomic Region Containing REC8 and RNF212B Is Associated with Individual Recombination Rate Variation in a Wild Population of Red Deer (Cervus elaphus)

  2018cited by this paper
• Indirect genetic effects clarify how traits can evolve even when fitness does not

  2018cited by this paper
• Reproduction has different costs for immunity and parasitism in a wild mammal

  2018cited by this paper
• Habitat impact assessment detects spatially driven patterns of grazing impacts in habitat mosaics but overestimates damage

  2018cited by this paper
• The fine-scale landscape of immunity and parasitism in a wild ungulate population

  2018cited by this paper
• Estimating selection on the act of inbreeding in a population with strong inbreeding depression

  2018cited by this paper
• Evidence for Selection-by-Environment but Not Genotype-by-Environment Interactions for Fitness-Related Traits in a Wild Mammal Population

  2017cited by this paper
• A high-density linkage map reveals sexually-dimorphic recombination landscapes in red deer (Cervus elaphus)

  2017cited by this paper
• Genomic Quantitative Genetics to Study Evolution in the Wild.

  2017cited by this paper
• Successes and challenges of long-term field studies of marked ungulates

  2017cited by this paper
• Pedigree reconstruction from SNP data: parentage assignment, sibship clustering and beyond

  2017cited by this paper
• A High-Density Linkage Map Reveals Sexual Dimorphism in Recombination Landscapes in Red Deer (Cervus elaphus)

  2017cited by this paper
• Long-term field studies of mammals: what the short-term study cannot tell us

  2017cited by this paper
• Recent natural selection causes adaptive evolution of an avian polygenic trait

  2017cited by this paper
• Cohort variation in individual body mass dissipates with age in large herbivores

  2016cited by this paper
• Inbreeding depression across the lifespan in a wild mammal population

  2016cited by this paper
• Phenological sensitivity to climate across taxa and trophic levels

  2016cited by this paper
• Relative costs of offspring sex and offspring survival in a polygynous mammal

  2016cited by this paper
• Why are estimates of the strength and direction of natural selection from wild populations not congruent with observed rates of phenotypic change?

  2016cited by this paper
• Testosterone and cortisol concentrations vary with reproductive status in wild female red deer

  2016cited by this paper
• Resolving the conundrum of inbreeding depression but no inbreeding avoidance: Estimating sex‐specific selection on inbreeding by song sparrows (Melospiza melodia)

  2015cited by this paper
• Landscape-scale vegetation patterns influence small-scale grazing impacts

  2015cited by this paper
• Cortisol but not testosterone is repeatable and varies with reproductive effort in wild red deer stags.

  2015cited by this paper
• Multiple pathways mediate the effects of climate change on maternal reproductive traits in a red deer population

  2014cited by this paper
• The gut microbiome.

  2014cited by this paper
• Estimating quantitative genetic parameters in wild populations: a comparison of pedigree and genomic approaches

  2014cited by this paper
• Quantitative genetics in the wild

  2014cited by this paper
• Costs of mating competition limit male lifetime breeding success in polygynous mammals

  2014cited by this paper
• A Multivariate Analysis of Genetic Constraints to Life History Evolution in a Wild Population of Red Deer

  2014cited by this paper
• Evolutionary potential and constraints in wild populations

  2014cited by this paper
• Early life expenditure in sexual competition is associated with increased reproductive senescence in male red deer

  2014cited by this paper
• Inbreeding avoidance, tolerance, or preference in animals?

  2013cited by this paper
• Life history trade-offs at a single locus maintain sexually selected genetic variation

  2013cited by this paper
• Sex differences in the consequences of maternal loss in a long-lived mammal, the red deer (Cervus elaphus)

  2013cited by this paper
• Climate change and timing of avian breeding and migration: evolutionary versus plastic changes

  2013cited by this paper
• Diversity of ageing across the tree of life

  2013cited by this paper
• SHARED SPATIAL EFFECTS ON QUANTITATIVE GENETIC PARAMETERS: ACCOUNTING FOR SPATIAL AUTOCORRELATION AND HOME RANGE OVERLAP REDUCES ESTIMATES OF HERITABILITY IN WILD RED DEER

  2012cited by this paper
• Genetic Analysis of Life-History Constraint and Evolution in a Wild Ungulate Population

  2012cited by this paper
• Re-mating across years and intralineage polygyny are associated with greater than expected levels of inbreeding in wild red deer

  2012cited by this paper
• VARIANCES AND COVARIANCES OF PHENOLOGICAL TRAITS IN A WILD MAMMAL POPULATION

  2011cited by this paper
• Cryptic Evolution: Does Environmental Deterioration Have a Genetic Basis?

  2011cited by this paper
• Inbreeding depression in red deer calves

  2011cited by this paper
• Key Words

  2011cited by this paper
• GCTA: a tool for genome-wide complex trait analysis.

  2011cited by this paper
• Advancing breeding phenology in response to environmental change in a wild red deer population

  2011cited by this paper
• The red deer rut revisited: female excursions but no evidence females move to mate with preferred males

  2011cited by this paper
• Gestation length variation in a wild ungulate

  2011cited by this paper
• An ecologist's guide to the animal model.

  2010cited by this paper
• Getting the timing right: antler growth phenology and sexual selection in a wild red deer population

  2010cited by this paper
• The danger of applying the breeder's equation in observational studies of natural populations

  2010cited by this paper
• Individuals and populations: the role of long-term, individual-based studies of animals in ecology and evolutionary biology.

  2010cited by this paper
• Trophic level asynchrony in rates of phenological change for marine, freshwater and terrestrial environments

  2010cited by this paper
• Inter‐ and Intrasexual Variation in Aging Patterns across Reproductive Traits in a Wild Red Deer Population

  2009cited by this paper
• The influence of climatic variation on the birth weights of Red deer (Cervus elaphus)

  2009cited by this paper
• Annual cycles of body weight and condition in Scottish Red deer, Cervus elaphus

  2009cited by this paper
• Senescence rates are determined by ranking on the fast-slow life-history continuum.

  2008cited by this paper
• Testing for genetic trade-offs between early- and late-life reproduction in a wild red deer population

  2008cited by this paper
• Evolutionary genetics of ageing in the wild : empirical patterns and future perspectives

  2008cited by this paper
• Sex differences in ageing in natural populations of vertebrates

  2007cited by this paper
• Sexually antagonistic genetic variation for fitness in red deer

  2007cited by this paper
• Environmental conditions in early life influence ageing rates in a wild population of red deer.

  2007cited by this paper
• How to separate genetic and environmental causes of similarity between relatives

  2007cited by this paper
• WHEN NOT TO AVOID INBREEDING

  2006cited by this paper
• The rate of senescence in maternal performance increases with early-life fecundity in red deer.

  2006cited by this paper
• Cumulative reproduction and survival costs in female red deer

  2006cited by this paper
• Estimating individual contributions to population growth: evolutionary fitness in ecological time

  2006cited by this paper
• The Evolution of Parental Care

  2005cited by this paper
• Constraints on plastic responses to climate variation in red deer

  2005cited by this paper
• Red deer stags use formants as assessment cues during intrasexual agonistic interactions

  2005cited by this paper
• Maternal Dominance, Maternal Condition, and Offspring Sex Ratio in Ungulate Mammals

  2004cited by this paper
• Maternal quality and differences in milk production and composition for male and female Iberian red deer calves (Cervus elaphus hispanicus)

  2004cited by this paper
• Explaining stasis: microevolutionary studies in natural populations

  2004cited by this paper
• ESTIMATING SELECTION ON NEONATAL TRAITS IN RED DEER USING ELASTICITY PATH ANALYSIS

  2003cited by this paper
• Successes and Challenges

  2002cited by this paper
• A Genome Scan for Quantitative Trait Loci in a Wild Population of Red Deer ( Cervus elaphus )

  2002cited by this paper
• ANTLER SIZE IN RED DEER: HERITABILITY AND SELECTION BUT NO EVOLUTION

  2002cited by this paper

• Associations between lifetime fitness and social bonds in female red deer

  2026cites this paper
• Long-term studies provide unique insights into evolution

  2025cites this paper
• Parasite-mediated inbreeding depression in wild red deer

  2025cites this paper
• The natural history of social bonds

  2025cites this paper
• Addressing biases in sliding window analysis gives new insight into the response of parturition date to weather in a wild mammal

  2025cites this paper
• State-dependent mortality, not behavior, fragments population distribution of a long-lived mammal after ecological disturbance

  2025cites this paper
• What Can Genome Sequence Data Reveal About Population Viability?

  2024cites this paper
• Genome‐wide SNP assessment of contemporary European red deer genetic structure highlights the distinction of peripheral populations and the main admixture zones in Europe

  2024cites this paper
• Methods for tagging an ectoparasite, the salmon louse Lepeophtheirus salmonis

  2024cites this paper
• Genetic architecture of inbreeding depression may explain its persistence in a population of wild red deer

  2024cites this paper
• Insights from a 31‐year study demonstrate an inverse correlation between recreational activities and red deer fecundity, with bodyweight as a mediator

  2024cites this paper
• Response to Discretising and validating Keyfitz' entropy for any demographic classification

  2024cites this paper
• Introducing a unique animal ID and digital life history museum for wildlife metadata

  2024cites this paper
• Density‐dependent population regulation in freshwater fishes and small mammals: A literature review and insights for Ecological Risk Assessment

  2023cites this paper
• The expanding value of long-term studies of individuals in the wild

  2022cites this paper
• One Health for All: Advancing Human and Ecosystem Health in Cities by Integrating an Environmental Justice Lens

  2022cites this paper
• The impacts of heat stress on animal cognition: Implications for adaptation to a changing climate

  2021cites this paper
• Methods for tagging an ectoparasite, the salmon louse Lepeophtheirus

  year unknowncites this paper