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Socially induced delayed primiparity in brown bears Ursus arctos

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Abstract

Reproductive suppression through behavioral or physiological means is common in group-living and cooperative breeding mammals, but to our knowledge it has not been shown in wild large carnivores other than those with a clear form of social organization. Brown bear (Ursus arctos) females form matrilinear assemblages with related females using a common and largely exclusive area. Behavioral reproductive suppression might develop due to a hierarchical system among females within a matrilinear assemblage or due to inbreeding avoidance, because male brown bears can overlap with their daughters. We tested whether natal dispersal influenced the age of primiparity. We predicted that emigrant females, geographically removed from maternal or paternal influence, would reproduce earlier than philopatric females. The average age of primiparity was 4.3 years in females that dispersed outside their mother’s home range (n=8) and 5.2 years in philopatric females (n=10). Only the overlap with the mother’s home range, and not body size, body mass, growth, local population density, or overlap with the father’s home range, had a significant influence on the age of primiparity. The ultimate role of reproductive suppression for brown bears is likely to avoid inbreeding or to minimize resource competition. Due to the low risk of inbreeding and frequent exposure of young females to unrelated males, we conclude that resource competition within female hierarchies causes reproductive suppression in young females.

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Acknowledgements

This study was funded by the Norwegian Directorate for Nature Management, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, the Swedish Association for Hunting and Wildlife Management, World Wildlife Fund Sweden, the Research Council of Norway, and the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. Andreas Zedrosser was financially supported by the Austrian Science Fund Project P16236-B06. We thank the personnel in the Scandinavian Brown Bear Research Project for their assistance in the field and Orsa Communal Forest for field support. We thank Ali Nawaz and Bjørn Dahle for comments on an earlier draft and Solve Sæbø for statistical help. All capture and handling of bears reported in this paper complied with the contemporary laws regulating the treatment of animals in Sweden and Norway and was approved by the appropriate management agencies and ethical committees in both countries.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, P.O. Box 5003, 1432, Ås, Norway

    Ole-Gunnar Støen, Andreas Zedrosser, Per Wegge & Jon E. Swenson

  2. Institute for Wildlife Biology and Game Management, Department for Integrative Biology, University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Peter-Jordan Strasse 76, 1190, Vienna, Austria

    Andreas Zedrosser

  3. Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, Tungasletta 2, 7485, Trondheim, Norway

    Jon E. Swenson

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  1. Ole-Gunnar Støen
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  2. Andreas Zedrosser
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  3. Per Wegge
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Correspondence to Jon E. Swenson.

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Communicated by M. Festa-Bianchet

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Støen, OG., Zedrosser, A., Wegge, P. et al. Socially induced delayed primiparity in brown bears Ursus arctos . Behav Ecol Sociobiol 61, 1–8 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-006-0231-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-006-0231-z

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