Maternal condition and offspring sex ratio in polygynous ungulates: a case study of bighorn sheep

被引:30
作者
Blanchard, P
Festa-Bianchet, M [1 ]
Gaillard, JM
Jorgenson, JT
机构
[1] Univ Sherbrooke, Dept Biol, Sherbrooke, PQ J1K 2R1, Canada
[2] Univ Lyon 1, Unite Mixte Rech 5558, F-69622 Villeurbanne, France
[3] Alberta Dept Sustainable Dev, Fish & Wildlife Div, Canmore, AB T1W 1P1, Canada
基金
加拿大自然科学与工程研究理事会;
关键词
bighorn sheep; habitat quality; sex ratio; social rank; Trivers and Willard model; ungulates;
D O I
10.1093/beheco/arh153
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
The Trivers and Willard model (TWM) predicts that for sexually dimorphic polygynous mammals, mothers able to provide a high level of care should bias offspring sex ratio in favor of sons. Contradictory results of empirical studies, however, suggest that selective pressures for adaptive offspring sex ratio vary with species and environmental conditions. We report the results of a 29-year study of marked bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) in a population that underwent wide changes in density and where most females were weighed each year. Lamb sex ratio was independent of absolute ewe mass and yearly deviations from individual or population average mass, but there was a nonsignificant trend towards fewer males being born at high population density. Bighorn sheep satisfy all the assumptions of the TWM but not its prediction: lamb sex ratio is independent of maternal ability to provide care. Recent hypotheses to explain the lack of relationship between maternal condition and offspring sex in ungulates are unlikely to apply to bighorn sheep. We suggest that the TWM may only apply when social rank strongly affects the ability to provide maternal care. Those circumstances are likely to occur for only a few species and within a narrow range of environmental conditions.
引用
收藏
页码:274 / 279
页数:6
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