Reproductive success of bison bulls (Bison bison bison) in semi-natural conditions

Roden, Catherine; Vervaecke, Hilde; Guy, Mommens; Linda, Van Elsacker

doi:10.1016/s0378-4320(03)00084-8

Cited by 16 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…It has been repeatedly demonstrated that body size, strength and fighting and/or mate guarding success contribute to reproductive success of bulls in large bovids as, e.g., B. bison (Maher and Byers 1987;Komers et al 1992;Wolff 1998;Roden et al 2003) and S. caffer (Estes 1992). Thus, the sexual selection hypothesis provides the most intuitive explanation for male-larger SSD in these animals, in which a male combat is a regular part of male-male competition for promiscuous oestrous females living frequently in mixed herds.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patterns of sexual size dimorphism in cattle breeds support Rensch’s rule

Polák

Frynta

2010

Evol Ecol

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Rensch's rule describes the pattern of sexual size dimorphism (SSD) claiming that in taxa where males are the larger sex, larger species generally exhibit higher male to female body size ratios. Agreement with Rensch's rule is manifested by the slope of the allometric relationship between male and female body size exceeding one. In this paper we have tested the hypothesis that recent rapid evolutionary changes of body size accompanying domestication process and morphological radiation of domestic breeds follow Rensch's rule. We have analyzed literature data on adult body size of males and females in domestic cows, yaks, buffaloes and other bovines (315, 12, 24 and 2 breeds, respectively) and compared it with SSD in 18 wild species/subspecies of the subfamily Bovinae. Male to female body mass ratio in domestic cows (1.48) was fairly comparable to that found in other species of domestic and wild bovines except domestic buffaloes (1.19). In cows we have demonstrated clear positive allometry of male to female body mass ratio (slope 1.21) predicted by Rensch's rule, however, no such clear relationship was found when body mass was replaced by shoulder height. These findings are in agreement with those we have previously reported in other livestock species, goats and sheep.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patterns of sexual size dimorphism in cattle breeds support Rensch’s rule

Polák

Frynta

2010

Evol Ecol

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“…Green & Rothstein (1991b) found that the yearling body weight of bison was significantly correlated with weight at 3.5 years for sons but not for daughters. From 2 years of age, male bison already participate in contests over female access, although few are successful at this age (Roden et al 2003). Male weight is strongly related to rank in bison (Roden et al 2005) and can be considered a reasonable predictor of subsequent reproductive success (e.g.…”

Section: Offspring Weightmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In horses, sons of highranking mothers, which were also mothers in better condition because of superior access to food resources, had higher reproductive success than sons of subordinate mothers (Feh 1990). It is known that in a bison herd with several males present at a ratio of one bull to 10 females, 80% of the females are fertilized by the same bull (Roden et al 2003). Given the close link between weight, rank, dominance and reproductive success in males, highranking females may occasionally get a fitness jackpot by producing a heavy son.…”

Section: Offspring Weightmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dominance, fatness and fitness in female American bison, Bison bison

2005

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“…Nevertheless, young sexually mature bison are engaging in sexual behaviours during the rut (Mahan 1978;Shull 1985) and are often used for reproduction on farms due to the lower risk of handling (Komers et al 1992). In these circumstances, they have less senior competitors which gives younger bulls more opportunity to mate, so they can actually sire a proportion of the calves (Roden et al 2003). The current study showed that these younger bulls do not invest less in RE than older bulls.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 64%

“…Maher and Byers (1987) found that in the wild older bulls invest more in RE than younger bulls. Our previous analyses of paternity in captive herds of bison showed that, while reproductive success was highly skewed towards older and dominant males, the young bulls do sire offspring and thus participate in breeding (Roden et al 2003). Therefore, we included the younger bulls in the study.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reproductive effort of bison bulls (Bison bison) in semi-natural conditions

Roden

Stevens

Vervaecke

et al. 2011

J Ethol

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Reproductive effort (RE) is defined as the investment in any current reproductive act. In male ungulates, variation in RE can be explained by differences in age, dominance, phase in the breeding season and number of oestrus females simultaneously present. We investigated the relation between these factors and RE in American bison males in semi-natural conditions. We looked for differences between males in RE, measured by tending behaviour, and maintenance activities (feeding/resting) during the rut. We found no effect of age on RE. During early rut there was no difference in RE between males of different rank. Dominant males had a higher RE during peak rut, and in late rut both the first and second ranking males showed more RE than lower ranking bulls. For all males, there was a clear increase in RE towards peak rut and when more females were attractive. Maintenance behaviours decreased when more females were synchronously in oestrus. The most dominant bulls spent less time grazing than lower ranking males, and all males decreased feeding during peak rut. Resting decreased with age. We conclude that dominance, phase of rut and the number of females synchronously in oestrus are the factors that best explain variation in RE.

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Reproductive success of bison bulls (Bison bison bison) in semi-natural conditions

Cited by 16 publications

References 29 publications

Patterns of sexual size dimorphism in cattle breeds support Rensch’s rule

Patterns of sexual size dimorphism in cattle breeds support Rensch’s rule

Dominance, fatness and fitness in female American bison, Bison bison

Reproductive effort of bison bulls (Bison bison) in semi-natural conditions

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