Figure 1

Geographic distribution of genotypes per species. The blue background of the map indicates the hunting bag per species on county level during the hunting season 2021/22, the darker the blue, the more animals were shot. Genotypes per species are given with different symbols and colours. Each symbol represents one sample. As no exact location but the originating county of the samples was provided, the symbols were randomly placed within the corresponding county borders. The hunting bag of fallow and red deer is comparable. Only few fallow deer were tested in this study, all were of the same genotype N₁₃₈E₂₂₆, which is considered wildtype for this species. Even though, red deer are not present in wide parts of north-western and southern Germany, samples of most counties with a hunting bag for red deer were tested. A broad variance of genotypes for red deer was found. Roe deer abundantly inhabit most parts of Germany apart from densely populated areas, such as big cities. The sample set tested in this study is geographically evenly distributed across Germany and homozygous for wildtype (wt). Sika deer only occurs in four larger secluded regions and a few smaller areas. Animals of the larger areas were tested as well as a small number of farmed sika deer from southern Germany (region 1), genotypic variation was only seen in these animals.