Repeatability of size and fluctuating asymmetry of antler characteristics in red deer (Cervus elaphus) during ontogeny

Abstract

Fluctuating asymmetry (FA) has been suggested as a measure of the sensitivity of development to a wide array of genetic and environmental stresses. It has been also suggested that antlers in red deer could be important during social and rutting displays. We used antler measurements of 51 males that were measured over subsequent seasons, from 3-8 years of age, and analysed three antler traits: antler weight, length, and the number of antler tines (antler size). We calculated absolute and relative FA. All three size traits were highly significantly intercorrelated. By contrast to this, the FA of the three traits, did not show such relationships. With increasing age, antler size and FA also increased. When testing the repeatability of FA and antler size, there was a principal difference in the pattern between FA and antler size, with the latter being much more consistent than the former. This suggests that antler size, not FA, may be a good predictor of the bearer's quality in mate selection. This fits well with the good-genes hypothesis that the development of extravagant secondary sexual characters can be an honest advertisement of heritable male quality.

Age-related patterns of antler development in free-ranging white-tailed deer

“…Our data show clearly that yearling male deer with small antlers have, on average, smaller antlers at maturity. Similar relationships have been documented in captive white-tailed deer (Ott et al 1997, Demarais 1998, red deer (Cervus elaphus; Clutton-Brock et al 1982, van den Berg and Garrick 1997, Schmidt et al 2001, Kruuk et al 2002, Bartoš et al 2007, and reindeer (Rangifer tarandus; Weladji et al 2005). Schultz and Johnson (1992) failed to find a relationship between yearling and mature antler size of captive white-tailed deer in Louisiana but had a small sample size for spike-antlered yearlings at 4 (n ¼ 6) and 5 (n ¼ 1) years old and likely had low statistical power.…”

Repeatability of antler characteristics in mature white-tailed deer in South Texas: consequences of environmental effects

“…Commonly used criteria are number of points and antler spread due to ease of visual confirmation by hunters. On average, regardless of site, number of antler points had the lowest repeatability values (X ¼ 0.53) in our study and in previous studies (Bartos et al 2007;Lukefahr and Jacobson 1998). Spread (X ¼ 0.69) and main beam length (X ¼ 0.66) had the highest average repeatability values; thus, these may be more useful for establishing harvest criteria in mature male whitetailed deer.…”

“…Therefore, the lower trait repeatability for antler points may be influenced by differences in trait measurement. However, repeatability of antler points was noticeably lower than other antler traits in our study and also in other studies (Bartos et al 2007;Lukefahr and Jacobson 1998). Visual appearance is a factor in judging rivals before broadside threats (Clutton-Brock 1982;Lincoln 1972), yet the visual appearance of individual white-tailed deer with similar antler height, spread, and beam length may be nearly identical within a range of antler points (i.e., 8 versus 10 antler points).…”

Fluctuating Asymmetry: Methods, Theory, and Applications

“…The promise of an easily measured component of fitness has not borne out. The initial optimism has been replaced with skepticism, and the belief that fluctuating asymmetry is a weak measure of developmental instability, and consequently a poor measure of individual fitness [238,239,201,240]. The main problem is that with only two sides to a bilaterally symmetrical trait, only one degree of freedom is available to estimate a variance and a sample size n = 2 to estimate a mean absolute deviation.…”