Determinants and life-history consequences of social dominance in bighorn ewes

被引:47
作者
Favre, Magali [1 ]
Martin, Julien G. A. [1 ,2 ]
Festa-Bianchet, Marco [1 ,2 ]
机构
[1] Univ Sherbrooke, Dept Biol, Sherbrooke, PQ J1K 2R1, Canada
[2] Univ Laval, Ctr Etudes Nordiques, Quebec City, PQ, Canada
基金
加拿大自然科学与工程研究理事会;
关键词
age; bighorn sheep ewe; body mass; dominance; life-history traits; Ovis canadensis; path analysis;
D O I
10.1016/j.anbehav.2008.07.003
中图分类号
B84 [心理学]; C [社会科学总论]; Q98 [人类学];
学科分类号
03 ; 0303 ; 030303 ; 04 ; 0402 ;
摘要
Studies of social rank in female ungulates consistently suggest that dominance increases with age, perhaps because dyadic relationships are established early in life, when the older female is always larger than the younger one. This relationship then remains unchanged, even if for fully grown adults size and age are not correlated, suggesting that typically female ungulates normally gain little from being dominant. In contrast, social interactions among 64 marked known-age bighorn sheep ewes (Ovis canadensis) over 3 summers at Ram Mountain, Alberta, Canada, suggest that the effect of age on social rank weakened substantially for ewes older than 6 years. Mass was strongly related to rank for ewes age 7 years and older, whereas horn size had no effect on dominance. Once they reach asymptotic mass, bighorn ewes appear to challenge older but lighter females to whom they were formerly subordinate. Although these results suggest that bighorn ewes may benefit from high social rank, we found no effect of rank on reproductive success, lamb sex ratio or lamb birth date. (C) 2008 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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页码:1373 / 1380
页数:8
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