Getting fat or getting help? How female mammals cope with energetic constraints on reproduction.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Fat deposits enable a female mammal to bear the energy costs of offspring production and thus greatly influence her reproductive success. However, increasing locomotor costs and reduced agility counterbalance the fitness benefits of storing body fat. In species where costs of reproduction are distributed over other individuals such as fathers or non-breeding group members, reproductive females might therefore benefit from storing less energy in the form of body fat.

Results

Using a phylogenetic comparative approach on a sample of 87 mammalian species, and controlling for possible confounding variables, we found that reproductive females of species with allomaternal care exhibit reduced annual variation in body mass (estimated as CV body mass), which is a good prox

SUBMITTER: Heldstab SA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5468974 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature