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Age, Mortality and Fecundity

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Exploring Studbooks for Wildlife Management and Conservation

Part of the book series: Topics in Biodiversity and Conservation ((TOBC,volume 17))

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Abstract

Studbooks provide the data to describe life history in terms of age–specific mortality and fecundity tables. Life tables are preferably constructed from following individuals born in the same season (cohort) until all have died. Since studbooks on endangered species are relatively small, virtual cohorts (individuals born over a period of years) are used. Age classes usually have a width of 1 year, but this can be adapted to the biology of a species. Age distributions of living males and females in the studbook population are constructed. The shapes of age pyramids, as described by Bodenheimer, can provide, with some caution, an idea about population dynamics. Construction of mortality tables with mortality rates and associated measures are illustrated with studbook data on snow leopards. The differences between mortality and mortality rate, and between survivorship and survival rate are explained. The differences between mortality tables constructed from recorded deaths in the cohort (uncensored data) and data that are left truncated (staggered entry) and right censored (lost to follow up or living at end of study) are explained. The use of the Mantel–Haenszel (logrank) statistic in comparative survival studies is presented and illustrated by testing differences in survivorship between sexes. Construction of age–specific fecundity rates based on offspring of the same sex as the parents is presented and illustrated with real data. The topics of applying prorating to censored life table data and handling unknown sex and unknown parents are discussed.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This is the observed age of a living Asian elephant in the North American zoo population.

  2. 2.

    The year 2003 is excluded as the update of the version used in this book is 17 March 2003.

  3. 3.

    This male is the same individual that holds the longevity record – as on 31 December 2002 – for captive snow leopards (see Chap. 3).

  4. 4.

    1 January 1983–31 December 2002.

  5. 5.

    The choice for Fisher’s exact test or the χ 2 test depends on sample sizes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Population Management and Wildlife Conservation, East Rudham, Norfolk, UK

    F. P. G. Princée

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Princée, F.P.G. (2016). Age, Mortality and Fecundity. In: Exploring Studbooks for Wildlife Management and Conservation. Topics in Biodiversity and Conservation, vol 17. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50032-4_7

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