Heritabilities for antler characteristics and body weight in yearling white-tailed deer

Heritabilities for two body weights and five antler characteristics were estimated for a captive white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) herd maintained by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Single male breeding pens with 10-14 female deer were used for five consecutive generations. To minimize selection and maintain a broad genetic base, different sets of sires and as many different dams as possible were randomly assigned as breeders each generation. All deer were accurately predigreed by sire and dam and, except for birth weight, traits were measured at 1.5 years of age. Heritabilities were estimated utilizing (1) sire and within-sire components of variance, and (2) regression of male progeny performance on sire performance. Theoretically, these procedures estimate the amount of additive genetic variance present in a population without indication of non-additive genetic (dominance and epistasis) and maternal effects. Heritabilities ranged from 0.00-0.17 (birth weight), 0.58-0.64 (body weight), 0.22-0.56 (antler points), 0.47-0.70 (main beam length), 0.03-0.43 (antler spread), 0.80-0.89 (basal circumference) and 0.71-0.86 (antler weight). These heritabilities, except for birth weight, suggest that substantial genetic change could be expected from individual selection if realistic selection differentials were used.