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Sex-specific preweaning maternal care in reindeer (Rangifer tarandus t.)

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Abstract

Caribou (Rangifer tarandus) have been used as an example of a polygynous species in which one could expect females to manipulate their investments in sons and daughters based on their physical condition. We investigated whether the effect of maternal condition, measured as female body mass, on preweaning maternal care measured as calf mass in mid-July, calf mass in mid-November and calf mass gain (growth between mid-July and mid-November), was sex-biased in reindeer. We analysed separately young (≤ 4 years), prime age (5–10 years) and old (>10 years) mothers. Consistently, preweaning maternal care increased with increasing mother quality, but maternal condition did not influence whether a female produced a son or a daughter. Moreover, regardless of whether a female was young, prime age or old, there was no conclusive evidence of female quality-related, sex-biased preweaning maternal care in the study population. Our results indicate that maternal expenditure may be of equal magnitude in male and female offspring, regardless of the mothers' physical condition, and may support the hypothesis that a high level of maternal expenditure limits sex-biased maternal care.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the Norwegian Reindeer Husbandry Development Fund for financial support to R.B. Weladji and Ø. Holand. Fritz Trillmich, Marco Festa-Bianchet, Ilpo Kojola and an anonymous referee are thanked for providing critical and constructive comments that improved this article. Collection of the data was done with the collaboration of the reindeer husbandry administration office at Røros. The handling and weighing regime of animals in this study was done in accordance with regulations set by the Norwegian Animal Welfare Act.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Animal Science, Agricultural University of Norway, P.O. Box 5025, 1432, Ås, Norway

    Robert B. Weladji, Øystein Holand & Geir Steinheim

  2. Royal Ministry of Agriculture, P.O. Box 8007 Dep, 0030 , Oslo, Norway

    Dag Lenvik

Authors
  1. Robert B. Weladji
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  2. Øystein Holand
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  3. Geir Steinheim
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  4. Dag Lenvik
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Correspondence to Robert B. Weladji.

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Communicated by: F. Trillmich

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Weladji, R.B., Holand, Ø., Steinheim, G. et al. Sex-specific preweaning maternal care in reindeer (Rangifer tarandus t.) . Behav Ecol Sociobiol 53, 308–314 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-002-0572-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-002-0572-1

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