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Bateman gradients in a promiscuous mating system

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Abstract

The Bateman gradient is increasingly used to measure sexual selection and characterize mating systems. In a landmark paper, Arnold and Duvall (Am Nat 143:317–348, 1994) formulated predictions about the relationships between sex-specific Bateman gradients and the major types of mating system. In promiscuous species, gradients are expected to be strong and similar in both sexes. Current support for this prediction however remains equivocal as reported male gradients are almost constantly steeper than female gradients. Here, we estimated Bateman gradients in a wild population of Eastern chipmunks (Tamias striatus) over two reproductive seasons characterized by extreme levels of promiscuity and unbiased operational sex ratios. We found significant and positive Bateman gradients for both sexes. The gradients were not different among sexes suggesting that the strength of sexual selection was similar for males and females. The opportunity for selection was also particularly strong for a promiscuous species and not different among sexes. Our results thus support the predicted Bateman gradients for a promiscuous mating system.

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Acknowledgments

We thank all research assistants, graduate students, and technicians for their help in the field and the laboratory. We thank A. Jones, F. Pelletier and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on the manuscript. This research was supported by a Fonds Québécois de la Recherche sur la Nature et les Technologies (FQRNT) team grant and by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) discovery grants to DR, DG, and MMH. PB and POM were supported by doctoral scholarships from NSERC and FQRNT.

Ethical standards

Animals were captured and handled in compliance with the Canadian Council on Animal Care (#2007-DT01-Université de Sherbrooke) and the Ministère des Ressources Naturelles et de la Faune du Québec (#2008-04-15-101-05-S-F).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Département de Biologie, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, J1K 2R1, QC, Canada

    Patrick Bergeron & Dany Garant

  2. Département des Sciences Biologiques, UQAM, Montréal, H3C 3P8, QC, Canada

    Pierre-Olivier Montiglio & Denis Réale

  3. Natural Resource Sciences, McGill University, MacDonald Campus, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, H9X 3V9, QC, Canada

    Murray M. Humphries

Authors
  1. Patrick Bergeron
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  2. Pierre-Olivier Montiglio
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  3. Denis Réale
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  4. Murray M. Humphries
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  5. Dany Garant
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Patrick Bergeron.

Additional information

Communicated by A. I. Schulte-Hostedde

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Bergeron, P., Montiglio, PO., Réale, D. et al. Bateman gradients in a promiscuous mating system. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 66, 1125–1130 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-012-1364-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-012-1364-x

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