Abstract
Deer in the Kerama Island Group, Okinawa Prefecture, are generally regarded as an endemic form of the Japanese sika deer, with the subspecific name Cervus nippon keramae. Substantial morphological differences are recognized between C. n. keramae and other subspecies, although the Kerama population is believed to have originated from artificial introduction a few centuries ago. To clarify the degree of genetic divergence of C. n. keramae and discuss its origin, a partial sequence of the mitochondrial cytochrome-b gene was determined for deer from Akajima Island of the Kerama Group and was compared with those reported previously for other subspecies of the sika deer from southern Japan. Two individuals of C. n. keramae examined possessed two mtDNA haplotypes, of which one was shared with C. n. nippon and C. n. mageshimae from Kyushu and adjacent islands. The other, though differing from haplotypes so far reported for other subspecies, was also quite similar to haplotypes prevailing in other southern Japanese populations. These findings suggest that there is little genealogical separation between C. n. keramae and other subspecies from southern Japan.
