TY - JOUR
T1 - Correlates of early reproduction and apparent fitness consequences in male soay sheep
AU - Chapman, Elisabeth G
AU - Pilkington, Jill
AU - Pemberton, Josephine M
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank everyone who has contributed to the long‐term project on St Kilda, especially Tim Clutton‐Brock, Steve Albon, Loeske Kruuk, Dan Nussey, Michael Morrissey, and Ian Stevenson. The field study was funded mainly by NERC (NE/R011109/1 and NE/R016801/1) and the ERC (AdG 250098) funded much of the SNP genotyping. The SNP genotyping was carried out at the Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Facility Genetics Core, Edinburgh and Jisca Huisman carried out the pedigree reconstruction. We also thank J‐F Lemaître and one anonymous reviewer for helpful comments on an earlier version of this manuscript and Michael Morrissey for statistical advice.
Funding Information:
We thank everyone who has contributed to the long-term project on St Kilda, especially Tim Clutton-Brock, Steve Albon, Loeske Kruuk, Dan Nussey, Michael Morrissey, and Ian Stevenson. The field study was funded mainly by NERC (NE/R011109/1 and NE/R016801/1) and the ERC (AdG 250098) funded much of the SNP genotyping. The SNP genotyping was carried out at the Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Facility Genetics Core, Edinburgh and Jisca Huisman carried out the pedigree reconstruction. We also thank J-F Lemaître and one anonymous reviewer for helpful comments on an earlier version of this manuscript and Michael Morrissey for statistical advice.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
PY - 2023/5/7
Y1 - 2023/5/7
N2 - Life history trade-offs are ubiquitous across species and place constraints on the timing of life history events, including the optimal age at first reproduction. However, studies on lifetime breeding success of male mammals are rare due to sex-biased dispersal and the requirement for genetic paternity inferences. We studied the correlates and apparent fitness consequences of early-life reproduction among males in a free-living population of Soay sheep (Ovis aries) on St Kilda, Scotland. We investigated the factors associated with early breeding success and the apparent consequences of early success for survival and future reproduction. We used genetic paternity inferences, population data and individual morphology measurements collected over 30 years. We found that individuals born in years with low-density population size had the highest early-life breeding success and singletons were more likely to be successful than twins. Individuals that bred successfully at seven months were more likely to survive their first winter. For individuals that survived their first winter, early breeding success was not associated with later breeding success. Since individual heterogeneity affects breeding success, we believe that variation in individual quality masks costs of early reproduction in this population. Our findings provide no evidence for selection for delayed age at reproduction in male Soay sheep.
AB - Life history trade-offs are ubiquitous across species and place constraints on the timing of life history events, including the optimal age at first reproduction. However, studies on lifetime breeding success of male mammals are rare due to sex-biased dispersal and the requirement for genetic paternity inferences. We studied the correlates and apparent fitness consequences of early-life reproduction among males in a free-living population of Soay sheep (Ovis aries) on St Kilda, Scotland. We investigated the factors associated with early breeding success and the apparent consequences of early success for survival and future reproduction. We used genetic paternity inferences, population data and individual morphology measurements collected over 30 years. We found that individuals born in years with low-density population size had the highest early-life breeding success and singletons were more likely to be successful than twins. Individuals that bred successfully at seven months were more likely to survive their first winter. For individuals that survived their first winter, early breeding success was not associated with later breeding success. Since individual heterogeneity affects breeding success, we believe that variation in individual quality masks costs of early reproduction in this population. Our findings provide no evidence for selection for delayed age at reproduction in male Soay sheep.
KW - soay sheep
KW - early life reproduction
KW - life history
KW - trade offs
UR - http://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.wm37pvmsh
U2 - 10.1002/ece3.10058
DO - 10.1002/ece3.10058
M3 - Article
SN - 2045-7758
VL - 13
JO - Ecology and Evolution
JF - Ecology and Evolution
IS - 5
M1 - e10058
ER -