Effects of Foraging Activity on Sexual Segregation in Mule Deer

Bowyer, R. Terry; Kie, John G.

doi:10.1644/bos-115

Cited by 43 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Studies that investigate competing hypotheses to explain segregation often make efforts to eliminate all but one hypothesis as a likely explanation (Ruckstuhl and Neuhaus 2002; Bowyer and Kie 2004). This becomes difficult when assessing individuals in the wild due to lack of environmental controls, ignorance of early life circumstances and inability to conduct experiments.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Differences in social preference between the sexes during ontogeny drive segregation in a precocial species

Whiteside

Horik

Langley

et al. 2017

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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Hypotheses for why animals sexually segregate typically rely on adult traits, such as differences in sexual roles causing differential habitat preferences, or size dimorphism inducing differences in diet or behaviour. However, segregation can occur in juveniles before such roles or size dimorphism is well established. In young humans, leading hypotheses suggest that (1) sexes differ in their activity and the synchronisation of behaviour causes segregation and (2) sexes separate in order to learn and maximise future reproductive roles. We reared pheasants, Phasianus colchicus, from hatching in the absence of adults in a controlled environment. Females aggregated with their own sex from hatching, whereas males initially exhibited random association, but segregation became pronounced with age. The increase in segregation corresponded to an increase in sexual size dimorphism. By standardising habitat availability and diet and by removing predation risk, we could disregard the Predation Risk and the Forage Selection Hypotheses operating at this age. Activity budgets did not differ between the sexes, providing no support for the Behavioural Synchrony or the Activity Budget Hypotheses. Both sexes preferentially approached groups of unfamiliar, same-sex birds in binary choice tests, providing support for the Social Preference Hypothesis. Females may segregate to avoid male aggression. Sexual segregation may become established early in development, especially in precocial species, such as pheasants. A clear understanding of ontogenetic factors is essential to further our understanding of adult assortment patterns. Assortment by sex may not be inherent, but rather emerge as a consequence of social interactions early in life.Significance statementHypotheses pertaining to the force driving sexual segregation typically rely on adult traits, such as size dimorphism or differences in sexual roles. However, in some species, animals segregate as juveniles, so that most hypotheses previously invoked to explain sexual segregation in adults are irrelevant. We reared pheasants, Phasianus colchicus, from hatching and monitored multiple aspects of the chicks’ life history in an effort to determine what causes sexual segregation. Females aggregate with their own sex from hatching, whereas males initially have a more random association, but segregation becomes pronounced as both sexes got older, coinciding with greater sexual dimorphism. We controlled for influences of predation risk and dietary/habitat choice and found that activity budgets did not differ between the sexes. Instead, we found that both sexes preferred their own sex when presented with a binary choice, providing evidence that social preference could drive sexual segregation in pheasants.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Differences in social preference between the sexes during ontogeny drive segregation in a precocial species

Whiteside

Horik

Langley

et al. 2017

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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“…Alternatively, we hypothesized that locations where the probability of a female contact was high (H 3 ) would be most closely associated with areas of high CWD risk because of the higher social interactions among females, especially within groups (Schauber et al, 2007;Grear et al, 2010). Because males have a high prevalence along with elevated mixed-sex contacts due to polygynous mating structure (Bowyer and Kie, 2004;Mejía-Salazar et al, 2017), we also hypothesized a close association between locations of rut contacts and where the risk of the disease is high (H 4 ). Finally, we hypothesized that locations of a contact made by a deer with an individual from a different group (i.e., between-group contact locations) regardless of sex would increase CWD exposure and would be associated with where the risk of CWD was highest (H 5 ).…”

Section: Hypothesismentioning

confidence: 99%

Risky business: relating probability of direct contact to risk of chronic wasting disease

et al. 2023

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Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a fatal, prion disease of cervids that was first detected in Alberta in 2005. Transmission of CWD by direct contact with infected individuals plays a major role in the early phases of an outbreak. Mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) comprise 85% of CWD-infected animals in the province, and we investigated the seasonal effects of grouping patterns and landscape heterogeneity on direct, pair-wise contacts (distance of 3 m) within and between sex-specific (same or mixed sex) groups of mule deer in east-central Alberta. We determined seasonal contacts of mule deer based on proximity loggers that alter GPS schedules to record contact locations. We modeled the relative risk of contact between sex-specific dyads both within and between social groups based on landscape characteristics at the location of contact. We then assessed the support for 5 hypotheses that linked locations of seasonal contacts to occurrence of CWD on the landscape. Disease occurrence on the landscape was derived by comparing locations of CWD-infected and CWD-uninfected deer collected as part of the Alberta’s CWD hunter-harvest surveillance program. We found that contacts in winter occurred in areas where deer use was concentrated, whereas in summer, contact locations were less constrained in space where patterns of landscape characteristics at contact locations varied between sex-specific dyads. Contact probabilities of within and between-group male dyads in winter and between-group female dyads in summer were the best predictors of CWD risk in east-central Alberta. Our results relate habitat specific, social behaviors between conspecific mule deer to potential routes of CWD transmission and contribute to CWD research that guides management strategies for an emergent wildlife disease.

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“…As in a number of other ruminant species (e.g., mule deer Odocoileus hemionus [19], red deer [33], bighorn sheep Ovis canadensis [34], Alpine ibex [35]), fallow deer groups have a rather short lifetime whatever their composition (see [24], this paper). Our findings further show that the probability for fallow deer groups to split up progressively increases with their size.…”

Section: Factors Influencing Group Splitting-upmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the present study, prediction (i) was satisfied: as expected on the basis of the 'activity budget' hypothesis, activity synchrony was less frequent in mixed-sex groups than in single-sex groups or at least all-female groups. While this kind of pattern is certainly not universal in sexually-dimorphic ruminants [19,40], a lower synchrony in mixed-sex than in single-sex groups has also been found in red deer [11,14], bighorn sheep [30] and Alpine ibex [41]. However, such a finding is not sufficient for the 'activity budget' hypothesis to be considered as correct.…”

Section: Factors Influencing Group Splitting-upmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our aim in the present paper was to test predictions deriving from the 'activity budget' hypothesis, by investigating group instability in a population of fallow deer (Dama dama) living in a wooded park. While this hypothesis has been widely investigated over the last few years in bovids exhibiting sexual segregation (see [17] for a review), it has been more rarely tested in sexuallysegregating cervids (but see [18,19]). Fallow deer is a typical woodland-dwelling cervid exhibiting high sexual dimorphism in body-size [20].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sexual segregation in fallow deer: are mixed-sex groups especially unstable because of asynchrony between the sexes?

Villerette

Helder²,

Angibault

et al. 2006

Comptes Rendus Biologies

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In gregarious ruminants, females and males tend to live in separate groups outside the rutting season. According to the 'activity budget' hypothesis, this is due to an activity asynchrony between the two sexes reducing the lifetime of mixed-sex groups. We tested this hypothesis in a fallow deer population. Activity asynchrony was more frequent in mixed-sex than in single-sex groups. In addition, mixed-sex groups had a higher probability of splitting-up than all-female groups, and they mainly split up into singlesex groups. However, activity asynchrony did not appear as a major cause of splitting-up.

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Effects of Foraging Activity on Sexual Segregation in Mule Deer

Cited by 43 publications

References 43 publications

Differences in social preference between the sexes during ontogeny drive segregation in a precocial species

Differences in social preference between the sexes during ontogeny drive segregation in a precocial species

Risky business: relating probability of direct contact to risk of chronic wasting disease

Sexual segregation in fallow deer: are mixed-sex groups especially unstable because of asynchrony between the sexes?

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