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Annual variation in maternal age and calving date generate cohort effects in moose (Alces alces) body mass

  • Population Ecology
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Abstract

A general feature of the demography of large ungulates is that many demographic traits are dependent on female body mass at early ages. Thus, identifying the factors affecting body mass variation can give important mechanistic understanding of demographic processes. Here we relate individual variation in autumn and winter body mass of moose calves living at low density on an island in northern Norway to characteristics of their mother, and examine how these relationships are affected by annual variation in population density and climate. Body mass increased with increasing age of their mother, was lower for calves born late in the spring, decreased with litter size and was larger for males than for female calves. No residual effects of variation in density and climate were present after controlling for annual variation in mother age and calving date. The annual variation in adult female age structure and calving date explained a large part (71–75%) of the temporal variation in calf body mass. These results support the hypotheses that (a) body mass of moose calves are affected by qualities associated with mother age (e.g. body condition, calving date); and (b) populations living at low densities are partly buffered against temporal fluctuations in the environment.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the Directorate for Nature Management, the County Governor in Nordland County and the Research Council of Norway for financial support, and the European Commission for the Marie Curie Training Site Fellowship granted to M. Garel (ENDOCLIMA). Thanks also to T. Bø, J. Arnemo, Ø. Os., B. Aleksandersen and O. A. Davidsen for all support and help in the field, and to Tim Coulson and one anonymous reviewer for valuable comments on an earlier draft. We gratefully acknowledge IN2P3 for the computer resources. Manipulations described in this study comply with the current laws adopted by the Norwegian government.

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

    Erling J. Solberg & Morten Heim

  2. Center for Conservation Biology, Department of Biology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7491, Trondheim, Norway

    Erling J. Solberg, Vidar Grøtan, Bernt-Erik Sæther & Mathieu Garel

  3. Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Evolutive, CNRS, UMR 5558, Université de Lyon, Université Lyon 1, 43 boulevard du 11 novembre 1918, 69622, Villeurbanne, France

    Mathieu Garel

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  1. Erling J. Solberg
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  2. Morten Heim
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Correspondence to Erling J. Solberg.

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Communicated by Hannu Ylonen.

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Solberg, E.J., Heim, M., Grøtan, V. et al. Annual variation in maternal age and calving date generate cohort effects in moose (Alces alces) body mass. Oecologia 154, 259–271 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-007-0833-9

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