Semelparity and Factors Affecting the Reproductive Activity of the Brazilian Slender Opossum (<i>Marmosops paulensis</i>) in Southeastern Brazil

Leiner, Natália Oliveira; Setz, Eleonore Zulnara Freire; Silva, Wesley Rodrigues

doi:10.1644/07-mamm-a-083.1

Cited by 47 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Population patterns of this species will be clearer with additional long-term studies. The G. agilis population had synchronized seasonal reproduction during the rainy season, similar to other didelphids (AUGUST 1984, VIVAS & CALERO 1985, O'CONNELL 1989, CÁCERES & MONTEIRO-FILHO 1998, GENTILE et al 2004, RADEMAKER & CERQUEIRA 2006, LEINER et al 2008, BONECKER et al 2009). Seasonal didelphid reproduction associated with warm, wet seasons has been correlated with the influence of rainfall on insect abundance (PINHEIRO et al 2002, GENTILE et al 2004.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 66%

“…Increased abundance associated with low reproductive activity during the 2003 wet season could indicate immigration, as there was high recruitment. We also must consider that a threemonth time interval between trapping sessions may be very long for this species and some reproductive events could have been undetected Moreover, semelparity and short life span have been reported for several small opossums, such as Marmosops incanus (Lund, 1840) (LORINI et al 1994), Marmosops paulensis (Tate, 1931) (LEINER et al 2008), G. microtarsus (MARTINS et al 2006) and Monodelphis dimidiata (Wagner, 1847) (PINE et al 1985), and this could explain reduction of survival after the reproductive period.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Population ecology of small rodents and marsupials in a semi-deciduous tropical forest of the southeast Pantanal, Brazil

Andreazzi¹,

Rademaker²,

Gentile³

et al. 2011

Zoologia (Curitiba)

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The Pantanal is a South American biome characterized by extensive plains and stark environmental seasonality. Several habitats are subject to annual flooding, forcing small mammal species to aggregate in dry forest patches, which most likely influences their population dynamics and life history strategies. In order to investigate the seasonal influence on the life history traits of these small mammals, we conducted a 2-year mark-recapture study in the southeastern region of the Brazilian Pantanal (Nhecolândia) and analyzed the population dynamics of the most abundant small mammal species with the jackknife estimator. A trapping effort of 21,560 trap-nights resulted in 615 individuals in 1,171 captures (success = 5.43%). Three species of rodents - Oecomys mamorae (Thomas, 1906), Thrichomys pachyurus (Wagner, 1845), and Clyomys laticeps (Thomas, 1841) - and three species of marsupials - Gracilinanus agilis (Burmeister, 1854), Thylamys macrurus (Olfers, 1818), and Monodelphis domestica (Wagner, 1842) - were obtained. The most abundant species was O. mamorae, followed by G. agilis and T. pachyurus. Oecomys mamorae was more abundant in the wet season and presented an opportunistic reproductive strategy. Gracilianus agilis displayed increased population sizes in the dry season and synchronized, seasonal reproduction during the rainy season. Thrichomys pachyurus had a small population size, delayed response to variations in environmental conditions and higher reproductive rates in the dry season. All species revealed different life history strategies (seasonal, opportunistic or delayed response to environmental variations), coinciding with periods of higher resource availability in order to maximize survival

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 66%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Population ecology of small rodents and marsupials in a semi-deciduous tropical forest of the southeast Pantanal, Brazil

Andreazzi¹,

Rademaker²,

Gentile³

et al. 2011

Zoologia (Curitiba)

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“…Life history variation has previously been treated as discrete life history categories in evolutionary investigations of dasyurid marsupials (10), but demographic studies of insectivorous marsupials in Australia, South America, and Papua New Guinea reveal a continuum (7,(16)(17)(18). The most extreme strategy (dieoff) involves a set of peculiar physiological events that culminate in synchronous death: males irreversibly shut down sperm production a month before mating so that future reproduction is impossible.…”

Section: Significancementioning

confidence: 99%

Sperm competition drives the evolution of suicidal reproduction in mammals

Fisher

Dickman

Jones

et al. 2013

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

128

101

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Suicidal reproduction (semelparity) has evolved in only four genera of mammals. In these insectivorous marsupials, all males die after mating, when failure of the corticosteroid feedback mechanism elevates stress hormone levels during the mating season and causes lethal immune system collapse (die-off). We quantitatively test and resolve the evolutionary causes of this surprising and extreme life history strategy. We show that as marsupial predators in Australia, South America, and Papua New Guinea diversified into higher latitudes, seasonal predictability in abundance of their arthropod prey increased in multiple habitats. More-predictable prey peaks were associated with shorter annual breeding seasons, consistent with the suggestion that females accrue fitness benefits by timing peak energy demands of reproduction to coincide with maximum food abundance. We demonstrate that short mating seasons intensified reproductive competition between males, increasing male energy investment in copulations and reducing male postmating survival. However, predictability of annual prey cycles alone does not explain suicidal reproduction, because unlike insect abundance, peak ovulation dates in semelparous species are often synchronized to the day among years, triggered by a species-specific rate of change of photoperiod. Among species with low postmating male survival, we show that those with suicidal reproduction have shorter mating seasons and larger testes relative to body size. This indicates that lethal effort is adaptive in males because females escalate sperm competition by further shortening and synchronizing the annual mating period and mating promiscuously. We conclude that precopulatory sexual selection by females favored the evolution of suicidal reproduction in mammals.Dasyuridae | Didelphidae | life history trade off | seasonality | senescence

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“…data). If M. incanus is indeed semelparous (MARTINS et al 2006, LEINER et al 2008, adult males die just after reproduction, but there are already weaned and independent juveniles present in the area. Detectability varied between sampling methods, a fact occasionally recognized in small mammal studies such as EMMONS (1996) andVOSS et al (2001), which indicates that no single methodology is effective for recording the presence of all the species in an area.…”

Section: 7mentioning

confidence: 99%

Artificial nests as an alternative to studies of arboreal small mammal populations: a five-year study in the Atlantic Forest, Brazil

Loretto¹,

Vieira²

2011

Zoologia (Curitiba, Impr.)

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ABSTRACT. Despite the great diversity of Brazilian Atlantic forest small mammals, natural history of most species is unknown due to their cryptic and nocturnal habits, but also due to the inadequacy of methods to capture some species, especially those of arboreal habits. A new technique, based on the use of artificial nests (AN) to record arboreal marsupials, is presented. Artificial nests were combined with traditional live traps to study the population ecology of four didelphid marsupial species. After 62 months of monitoring, 119 individuals were recorded 243 times (total success = 5.2%). Only 26 individuals (22%) were recorded by both AN and live trap methods, and two of the four species were never captured by live traps, only by AN. Live traps alone would have provided biased data of the structure of small mammal assemblages, creating artificial tendencies in population dynamics of many species. Detectability estimates based on mark-recapture data could correct bias resulting from the use only live traps, but these estimates require that at least some individuals of each age class or stage are captured. Only the combination of AN and live traps can produce more accurate data on population dynamics and assemblage structure. This study demonstrates that artificial nests represent a new method that should be combined with live traps in studies of small mammal assemblages and populations.

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Semelparity and Factors Affecting the Reproductive Activity of the Brazilian Slender Opossum (Marmosops paulensis) in Southeastern Brazil

Cited by 47 publications

References 23 publications

Population ecology of small rodents and marsupials in a semi-deciduous tropical forest of the southeast Pantanal, Brazil

Population ecology of small rodents and marsupials in a semi-deciduous tropical forest of the southeast Pantanal, Brazil

Sperm competition drives the evolution of suicidal reproduction in mammals

Artificial nests as an alternative to studies of arboreal small mammal populations: a five-year study in the Atlantic Forest, Brazil

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