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ENSO affects sex ratio progeny in captive Iberian red deer despite a steady feeding regime

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Abstract

Climate variability greatly affects animals through direct and indirect effects. Animals with slow reproductive adaptation to ecological changes such as large mammals are likely to have evolved mechanisms to anticipate early such impacts of climate variability on the environment. One of the adaptive mechanisms between reproductive costs and benefits in mammals affects parental investment through biases in sex ratio. Deer might be likely to show an early detection of climate variability because conception takes place in early autumn, but the main raising cost in deer concerns lactation, which takes place at the end of the following spring. The aim of this paper is to assess whether there is a relationship between global indices of climate variability such as El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and sex ratio of a captive population of deer. Results showed that there was a negative correlation (r=−0.65) between sex ratio and ENSO indices between 1996 and 2008. El Niño enhances drier conditions during the summer in the Iberia Peninsula, which in turn favours a female bias. Results also suggest that the mechanism of early detection of climate variability exerts a strong effect on female reproductive physiology because the long-term stability of food resources in our setting has not markedly reduced it.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Fulgencio Cebrián and Isidoro Cambronero for their help in handling the animals. This study was supported by projects PAC06-01304298 (JCCM), MCYT (PET2006_0263), PBI 05–040 (JCCM), FEDER-MCEI project (CGL2008-00749/BOS) and MICINN (PTQ-08-01-06587). Handling procedures and sampling frequency were designed to reduce stress and health risks for subjects according to European and Spanish law, and current guidelines for ethical use of animals in research (ASAB 2006). We further thank the associate editor and three anonymous referees, for valuable comments on an earlier draft of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos, IREC (CSIC, UCLM, JCCM), 02071, Albacete, Spain

    Jose A. Estevez, Tomás Landete-Castillejos, Andrés J. García, Enrique Gaspar-López & Laureano Gallego

  2. Departamento de Ciencia y Tecnología Agroforestal y Genética, ETSIA, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM), 02071, Albacete, Spain

    Jose A. Estevez, Tomás Landete-Castillejos, Andrés J. García, Enrique Gaspar-López, Francisco Ceacero & Laureano Gallego

  3. Sección de Recursos Cinegéticos, Instituto de Desarrollo Regional, IDR, UCLM, 02071, Albacete, Spain

    Jose A. Estevez, Tomás Landete-Castillejos, Andrés J. García, Enrique Gaspar-López, Francisco Ceacero & Laureano Gallego

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  1. Jose A. Estevez
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  2. Tomás Landete-Castillejos
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  3. Andrés J. García
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  4. Enrique Gaspar-López
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  6. Laureano Gallego
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Correspondence to Jose A. Estevez.

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Communicated by: Matt W. Hayward

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Estevez, J.A., Landete-Castillejos, T., García, A.J. et al. ENSO affects sex ratio progeny in captive Iberian red deer despite a steady feeding regime. Acta Theriol 56, 323–328 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13364-011-0036-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13364-011-0036-y

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