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Influence of maternal characteristics and reproductive history on recruitment in an iteroparous ungulate

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Abstract

In reproductive dynamics, recruitment is a critical biological process to ensure populations remain viable. While extrinsic factors such as predation and environmental factors (e.g., droughts) have been found to strongly influence recruitment, knowledge gaps still exist on how maternal factors such as age, body size, and past reproductive history influence recruitment. We examined a captive population of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) with a known pedigree exhibiting natural breeding behavior from 2008 to 2019, and compared annual recruitment data of individuals relative to a mother’s age, lifetime body size percentile (LBP), and past reproductive history. We found that recruitment success increased up to 6.5 years of age before declining in older age classes. We also found that age and LBP had a significant interaction such that large-bodied females had high recruitment success at younger ages that peaked around 4.5 years of age, while small-bodied females had low recruitment success at young ages and high recruitment success at older ages. We also found females that recruited a fawn in the previous year recruited 1.46 times as many fawns than females that did not recruit a fawn the year prior. We documented 40 individuals (47% of mothers) that recruited fawns in consecutive years at least once in their lifetime, and those individuals recruited 75.3% of all fawns during the study. Our findings suggest that age of peak recruitment varies based on body size, and a minority of females in a population successfully recruit a majority of the fawns into the breeding population.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all members of the Auburn Deer Lab for their assistance during data collection, specifically M. Gomes, J. Elliott, M. McDonough, L. Ridgeway, and the numerous volunteer technicians who helped along the way during field work. We would also like to thank all those who funded and supported our research through the years: Code Blue Scents, PRADCO Outdoor Brands, Moultrie Feeders, EBSCO Industries, Summit Tree Stands, and Deer & Deer Hunting Magazine. Special thanks to V. Jackson for providing maintenance of the facility. Finally, thank you to Dr. Gabriel Pigeon and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful insight in the editing of this manuscript.

Funding

This project was financially supported by Code Blue Scents, EBSCO Industries, PRADCO Outdoor Brands, Moultrie Feeders, Summit Tree Stands, Deer & Deer Hunting Magazine, and financial support from private individuals.

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  1. College of Forestry, Wildlife and Environment, Auburn University, 602 Duncan Dr., Auburn, AL, 36849, USA

    Tristan J. Swartout, Chad H. Newbolt, Todd D. Steury, William D. Gulsby & Stephen S. Ditchkoff

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  1. Tristan J. Swartout
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  2. Chad H. Newbolt
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  3. Todd D. Steury
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  5. Stephen S. Ditchkoff
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Contributions

TS: Conceptualization (equal); Data curation (supporting); Formal analysis (lead); Methodology (supporting); Project administration (supporting); Resources (equal); Writing-original draft. CN: Data curation (lead); Funding acquisition (supporting); Methodology (supporting); Project administration (supporting); Resources (equal); Writing-review and editing. TS: Formal analysis (supporting); Writing-review and editing. WG: Writing-review and editing. SD: Conceptualization (equal); Funding acquisition (lead); Methodology (supporting); Project administration (lead); Resources (equal); Supervisor (lead); Writing–review and editing.

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Correspondence to Tristan J. Swartout.

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All animal handling and research in this study was approved by the Auburn University Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (PRN 2008–1417; PRN 2008–1421; PRN 2010–1785; PRN 2011–1971; PRN 2013–2372; PRN 2014–2521; PRN 2016–2964; PRN 2016–2985; PRN 2019–3599; PRN 2019–3623).

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Swartout, T.J., Newbolt, C.H., Steury, T.D. et al. Influence of maternal characteristics and reproductive history on recruitment in an iteroparous ungulate. Evol Ecol 37, 669–689 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10682-023-10243-7

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