Body Size, Sperm Competition, and Determinants of Reproductive Success in Male Savanna Baboons

Bercovitch, Fred B.

doi:10.1111/j.1558-5646.1989.tb02600.x

Cited by 41 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 89 publications

(121 reference statements)

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“…Male body size, and muscle mass in particular, is expected to affect competitive ability, an important determinant of reproductive access (102)(103)(104)(105)(106). Other factors, such as social relationships and sperm competition, may be of greater importance to fitness in some primates (107). Accordingly, a recent study of Fig.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Faster reproductive rates trade off against offspring growth in wild chimpanzees

Thompson

Muller

Sabbi

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Life history theory predicts a trade-off between offspring quality and quantity. Among large-bodied mammals, prolonged lactation and infant dependence suggest particularly strong potential for a qualityquantity trade-off to exist. Humans are one of the only such species to have been examined, providing mixed evidence under a peculiar set of circumstances, including extensive nutritional provisioning by nonmothers and extrasomatic wealth transmission. Here, we examine trade-offs between reproductive rate and one aspect of offspring quality (body size) in wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii), a species with long periods of infant dependence and little direct provisioning. Juvenile lean body mass, estimated using urinary creatinine excretion, was positively associated with the interval to the next sibling's birth. These effects persisted into adolescence and were not moderated by maternal identity. Maternal depletion could not explain poor offspring growth, as older mothers had larger offspring, and low maternal energy balance during lactation predicted larger, not smaller, juvenile size. Instead, our data suggest that offspring growth suffers when mothers wean early to invest in new reproductive efforts. These findings indicate that chimpanzee mothers with the resources to do so prioritize production of new offspring over prolonged investment in current offspring.life history | growth | reproduction | primates | weaning P arents face a fundamental life-history trade-off between producing more offspring and investing in the quality of each progeny (1-4). This offspring quality-quantity trade-off, along with a trade-off between reproductive investment and parental survival, means that maximizing reproductive rates is often not the strategy that maximizes fitness (5-7). The quality-quantity trade-off has been empirically demonstrated in species that produce litters or clutches, where large litter size often leads to small offspring size, slow growth rates, and reduced survival, particularly under conditions of ecological stress (8-11). Comparative analyses also support a negative interspecific relationship between reproductive rate and offspring size (12, 13). The quality-quantity trade-off has rarely been examined in species for which single births are the norm, and for which reproductive rate is determined by the interval between successive births. Such species are important tests of the model, as a slow breeding strategy suggests a particularly potent trade-off between offspring investment and reproductive rate. Understanding how individuals negotiate this trade-off can provide important insights into the evolution of reproductive biology and behavior.Data on humans are valuable because humans invest intensively in offspring, yet have highly variable reproductive rates. Many studies find the predicted negative relationship between reproductive rates and offspring growth or health (14-18) or demonstrate fitness maximization at intermediate levels of fertility (19-21). For example, when a water tap was ...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Faster reproductive rates trade off against offspring growth in wild chimpanzees

Thompson

Muller

Sabbi

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…Given morphological and hormonal changes during the breeding season (Bercovitch, 1989), changes within the rhesus may have confounded differences between the species. Additionally, changes in leptin across the breeding season might have distorted the relationship between hormonal and morphometric variables within the rhesus themselves.…”

Section: Seasonal Variationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Leptin, adiposity, and testosterone in captive male macaques

Muehlenbein

Richards

Watts

et al. 2005

Am. J. Phys. Anthropol.

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Leptin is considered to act as a signal relating somatic energetic status to the reproductive system. However, the nature of that signal and its relationship with male reproductive function across nonhuman primate species are unclear. We suggest that species-specific differences in leptin physiology may be related to the degree of environmental variation and variation in the importance of energy stores for male reproduction. In order to test the role of seasonality in species differences among nonhuman primates, we compared leptin, testosterone, and body composition in male rhesus (n = 69) and pig-tailed (n = 43) macaques. Despite having larger abdominal fat deposits, the rhesus macaques did not exhibit significantly higher leptin levels (rhesus, 2.21 +/- 0.43 ng/ml; pig-tailed, 2.12 +/- 0.39 ng/ml). Both species showed increases in leptin across adolescent, subadult, and adult age-groups (P = 0.036 for rhesus; P = 0.0003 for pig-tailed by ANCOVA). Testosterone was not significantly associated with leptin in either the rhesus (r = 0.039; P = 0.754) or pig-tailed (r = 0.2862; P = 0.066) samples. Comparison of leptin levels across the two species using univariate modeling procedures showed no significant age-group by abdominal fat interaction. These findings suggest little difference in leptin production between these two closely related species, despite the difference in breeding seasonality.

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“…Contest competition in which the highest ranking males have a more certain fertilization success, becomes scramble competition where chance plays a role, and, therefore, low ranking males may also succeed in inseminating a female. In such situations sperm competition (MOLLER, 1988;BERCOVITCH, 1989) may prevail, with the expectation that paternity will be (1) distributed more irregularly over the males of different rank in each group and (2) less biased towards the highest ranking males on average. A correlation between dominance rank and reproductive success will thus be less pronounced.…”

Section: Introduction Rank and Reproductive Success: Different Expectmentioning

confidence: 97%

Male dominance rank and reproductive success in primate groups

Ruiter

Hooff

1993

Primates

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ABSTRACT. The relationship between male dominance rank and reproductive success has been a topic of interest since the beginning of primatology. From a theoretical point of view the existence or absence of this relationship has great implications with respect to the meaning of dominance rank and more general of the social relationships between individuals within social groups. Until fairly recently mating behaviour has been used as an indicator of reproductive success, but these two variables need not be correlated. The relations between mating success, reproductive success, and dominance rank indicate whether selective mating is involved (different mating partners at different phases of fertility, for example through male contest or female choice). With the development of genetic techniques to determine reproductive success directly, it has now become possible to investigate these relations.In our study on wild long-tailed macaques (Macacafascicularis) we find a relatively strong correlation between rank and reproductive success which is attributable to selective mating by the alpha male during fertile periods of the females. In most previous studies no such clear results have been obtained, and we discuss the differences in outcome in relation to the study conditions, group sizes, and possible differences between species in terms of reproductive strategies.

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Body Size, Sperm Competition, and Determinants of Reproductive Success in Male Savanna Baboons

Cited by 41 publications

References 89 publications

Faster reproductive rates trade off against offspring growth in wild chimpanzees

Faster reproductive rates trade off against offspring growth in wild chimpanzees

Leptin, adiposity, and testosterone in captive male macaques

Male dominance rank and reproductive success in primate groups

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