Is sex-biased maternal care limited by total maternal expenditure in polygynous ungulates?

Pélabon, Christophe; Gaillard, Jean‐Michel; Loison, Anne; Portier, Christine

doi:10.1007/bf00174135

Cited by 42 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…Since that hypothesis was suggested, many studies have been performed looking for such differential treatment of offspring by mothers (see Byers & Moodie 1990. While some studies have clearly found that mothers do not make such a distinction (Byers & Moodie 1990, Pelabon et al 1995, e.g. sea lions: Ono & Boness 1996, some studies have found clear evidence of differential treatment of offspring by their sex (Byers & Moodie 1990, Pelabon et al 1995, e.g.…”

Section: An Alternate Hypothesismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While some studies have clearly found that mothers do not make such a distinction (Byers & Moodie 1990, Pelabon et al 1995, e.g. sea lions: Ono & Boness 1996, some studies have found clear evidence of differential treatment of offspring by their sex (Byers & Moodie 1990, Pelabon et al 1995, e.g. bighorn sheep: Hogg et al 1992elephants: Lee & Moss 1986;pinnipeds: Riedman 1990;red deer: Clutton-Brock et al 1981;Sarahan arrui: Cassinello 1996).…”

Section: An Alternate Hypothesismentioning

confidence: 99%

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Techniques for studying vocal learning in bottlenose dolphins, Tursiops truncatus

Fripp¹

1999

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The objective of this thesis is to develop the methods necessary for evaluating the role of learning in the natural whistle development of bottlenose dolphins. Bottlenose dolphins provide a unique opportunity to study social influences on vocal learning in a highly social non-human mammal. V ocallearning is critical for the development of human language but plays a much smaller role in the vocal development of most non-human terrestrial mammals. Preliminary evidence has indicated that the signature whistles of dolphin calves are modeled on the whistles in the calves' early environments and that the calves' social interactions influence the choice of model. The methods currently used to study the acoustic and social behavior of dolphins are insufficient to evaluate the role of learning in whistle development and the social influences on that development. The techniques necessary to perform such a study have therefore been developed and tested in this thesis.The methods used to study vocal learning in various species were reviewed and a study of vocal learning appropriate to dolphins was designed. A strategy for sampling the dolphins' social and acoustic behavior was developed. To test the sampling strategy, and to provide data for the development of analysis techniques, a pilot study was performed on dolphin calves born in captivity. Focal samples of the social interactions of dolphin mothers and calves were taken over several months before and after the births of four calves, with simultaneous acoustic recordings during all focal sessions. A test of sampling times determined that five focal samples spaced throughout the day adequately represented the dolphins' behavior for the entire day. The interactions recorded during the focal samples were analyzed with loglinear analysis, multidimensional scaling, and hierarchical cluster analysis to determine the types of social relationships that occurred between the dolphins. For both calves and adults, three types of relationships were found. An analysis of a prolonged alloparenting incident demonstrated that the social relationship between mothers and calves was a care-giving relationship independent of their genetic relationship. Measures other than the total association were found to be necessary to the evaluation of the subtle relationships between the dolphins.Methods for the quantitative analysis of the whistles produced by the dolphins were needed. Therefore, programs were developed to automatically detect and extract the whistles from the recordings in an unbiased manner. Several methods for categorizing whistles were compared and hierarchical cluster analysis of dynamic time warping of extracted contours was shown to perform well for comparing both stereotyped and un-stereotyped whistles. These techniques were then used to compare the early acoustic environments of the calves born in the pilot study. The early environments of the four calves were found to be distinctive. In particular, the putative signature whistle of each calf s mother made up a subst...

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Section: An Alternate Hypothesismentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: An Alternate Hypothesismentioning

confidence: 99%

Techniques for studying vocal learning in bottlenose dolphins, Tursiops truncatus

Fripp¹

1999

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“…Collectively, the hypotheses proposed in the literature can be loosely grouped according to the extent that the directionality of the sex-bias is contingent on maternal condition; however, the predictions deriving from these hypotheses are not always mutually exclusive, complicating interpretation of empirical results [10]. Large-bodied ungulates are frequently used for investigating sex-biased maternal allocation because male body size contributes substantially to success in competitive access to mating opportunities, but evidence for systematic sex-biases has been equivocal [10][11][12][13][14].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Holsteins Favor Heifers, Not Bulls: Biased Milk Production Programmed during Pregnancy as a Function of Fetal Sex

Hinde

Carpenter

Clay

et al. 2014

Preprint

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Mammalian females pay high energetic costs for reproduction, the greatest of which is imposed by lactation. The synthesis of milk requires, in part, the mobilization of bodily reserves to nourish developing young. Numerous hypotheses have been advanced to predict how mothers will differentially invest in sons and daughters, however few studies have addressed sexbiased milk synthesis. Here we leverage the dairy cow model to investigate such phenomena. Using 2.39 million lactation records from 1.49 million dairy cows, we demonstrate that the sex of the fetus influences the capacity of the mammary gland to synthesize milk during lactation. Cows favor daughters, producing significantly more milk for daughters than for sons across lactation. Using a sub-sample of this dataset (N = 113,750 subjects) we further demonstrate that the effects of fetal sex interact dynamically across parities, whereby the sex of the fetus being gestated can enhance or diminish the production of milk during an established lactation. Moreover the sex of the fetus gestated on the first parity has persistent consequences for milk synthesis on the subsequent parity. Specifically, gestation of a daughter on the first parity increases milk production by ,445 kg over the first two lactations. Our results identify a dramatic and sustained programming of mammary function by offspring in utero. Nutritional and endocrine conditions in utero are known to have pronounced and long-term effects on progeny, but the ways in which the progeny has sustained physiological effects on the dam have received little attention to date.

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“…In domestic mammals and wild species kept in captivity, birth mass and postnatal growth rate are known to be affected by maternal nutrition and to have an effect on neonatal survival (Verme 1965;Robbins and Robbins 1979). In polytocous species, maternal expenditure incurred by females giving birth to twins or triplets is high (Andersen and Linnell 1997;Gaillard et al 1993;Pélabon et al 1995); consequently, we would expect litter size to affect the mortality rates of fawns in such species.…”

mentioning

confidence: 97%

Ecological correlates of mortality of roe deer fawns in a predator-free environment

Andersen¹,

Linnell²

1998

Can. J. Zool.

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The mortality of roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) fawns in summer was studied on Storfosna Island (10 km²), a predator-free island 2 km off the west-central coast of Norway, during a period of rapid population increase. Between 1991 and 1994 the population density increased from about 10 to 40 roe deer/km 2 . During this period 285 live and 36 stillborn fawns were found and the live fawns were all subsequently radio-collared. All observed mortality occurred within the first 35 days of life. The main causes of death were stillbirth, starvation/hypothermia, drowning, car accidents, and falls. The average annual total mortality for all 4 years was 18%. Although there was a large increase in mortality between 1991 and 1992 (from 10 to 18%), there was little subsequent increase in the last 3 years, resulting in an overall weak density dependence in total mortality. However, the proportion of stillbirths (5% in 1991 to 15% in 1994) showed a clear and significant trend toward an increase with increasing density. Low temperatures in April, which strongly affect the timing of the spring flush of high-quality forage during late gestation, also tended to contribute to higher mortality. Fawns that died were found to have reduced individual growth rates prior to death compared with fawns that survived. Fawns born to relatively light mothers or in triplet litters had higher mortality rates than those born to heavy mothers or in smaller litters. Maternal age and date of birth or sex of fawn had no effect on mortality.Résumé: La mortalité des faons en été a été étudiée chez le Chevreuil (Capreolus capreolus) dans l'île de Storfosna (10 km²), à 2 km au large de la côte centre-ouest de la Norvège, au cours d'une période d'augmentation rapide de la densité en l'absence de prédateurs. La densité de la population a augmenté d'environ 10 à 40 chevreuils/km² de 1991 à 1994. Au cours de cette période 285 faons vivants et 36 faons mort-nés ont été trouvés et les faons vivants ont par la suite été munis d'un collier émetteur. Tous les cas de mortalité observés se sont produits au cours des 35 premiers jours de la vie. Parmi les causes de mortalité, les principales étaient la mort à la naissance, l'inanition/hypothermie, la noyade, les accidents de la route et les chutes. Le taux annuel moyen de mortalité totale calculé sur les 4 ans a été de 18%. Il s'est produit une augmentation importante du taux de mortalité entre 1991 et 1992 (de 10 à 18%), mais ce taux a peu changé au cours des 3 années subséquentes, si bien que dans l'ensemble la mortalité totale au cours de toutes les années a été peu influencée par la densité. Cependant, la proportion de mort-nés (5% en 1991 à 15% en 1994) a démontré une tendance nette et significative à l'augmentation en fonction de la densité. Des températures basses en avril, qui enrayent fortement l'éclosion printanière du brout de haute qualité vers la fin de la gestation, avaient également tendance à augmenter la mortalité. Les faons qui sont morts avaient des taux individuels de croissance plus lents avant le...

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Is sex-biased maternal care limited by total maternal expenditure in polygynous ungulates?

Cited by 42 publications

References 61 publications

Techniques for studying vocal learning in bottlenose dolphins, Tursiops truncatus

Techniques for studying vocal learning in bottlenose dolphins, Tursiops truncatus

Holsteins Favor Heifers, Not Bulls: Biased Milk Production Programmed during Pregnancy as a Function of Fetal Sex

Ecological correlates of mortality of roe deer fawns in a predator-free environment

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