Dezeure, Jules;
Burtschell, Lugdiwine;
Baniel, Alice;
Carter, Alecia;
Godelle, Bernard;
Cowlishaw, Guy;
Huchard, Elise;
(2023)
Evolutionary Determinants of Nonseasonal Breeding in Wild Chacma Baboons.
The American Naturalist
, 201
(1)
pp. 106-124.
10.1086/722082.
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Abstract
Animal reproductive phenology varies from strongly seasonal to nonseasonal, sometimes among closely related or sympatric species. While the extent of reproductive seasonality is often attributed to environmental seasonality, this fails to explain many cases of nonseasonal breeding in seasonal environments. We investigated the evolutionary determinants of nonseasonal breeding in a wild primate, the chacma baboon (Papio ursinus), living in a seasonal environment with high climatic unpredictability. We tested three hypotheses proposing that nonseasonal breeding has evolved in response to (1) climatic unpredictability, (2) reproductive competition between females favoring birth asynchrony, and (3) individual, rank-dependent variations in optimal reproductive timing. We found strong support for an effect of reproductive asynchrony modulated by rank: (i) birth synchrony is costly to subordinate females, lengthening their interbirth intervals; (ii) females alter their reproductive timings (fertility periods and conceptions) in relation to previous conceptions in the group; and (iii) the reported effect of birth synchrony on interbirth intervals weakens the intensity of reproductive seasonality at the population level. This study emphasizes the importance of sociality in mediating the evolution of reproductive phenology in group-living organisms, a result of broad significance for understanding key demographic parameters driving population responses to increasing climatic fluctuations.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Evolutionary Determinants of Nonseasonal Breeding in Wild Chacma Baboons |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1086/722082 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1086/722082 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
| Keywords: | Primate, reproductive seasonality, reproductive phenology,reproductive suppression, paternal care, female-female competition |
| UCL classification: | UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10150544 |
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