The somatic cost of reproduction: what determines reproductive effort in prime-aged fallow bucks?

The somatic costs of reproduction are important for understanding the relationship between sexual selection and life-history evolution, and there are two main hypotheses used to explain the pattern of reproductive effort in ungulates. The terminal investment hypothesis predicts that reproductive effort should increase with age, because the value of each offspring increases as the number of future potential offspring decreases over the lifetime of an individual. In contrast, the mating strategy-effort hypothesis predicts that reproductive effort should be highest in prime-aged males, and lower in both younger and older males, since prime-aged males are most active in trying to gain matings. We examined reproductive effort among prime-aged (5–8 years old) fallow bucks (Dama dama) by comparing mass loss during the breeding season with mating success and activities associated with mating. Males lost about 26% of their body mass during the breeding season and mating success was strongly positively related to the time spent moving and in vocal display. However, mass loss was not related to either mating success or the behaviours associated with mating success. This indicates that males of higher quality were more efficient at converting energy into reproductive success, and is consistent with our earlier results showing phenotypic quality differences between males in our study population. Mass loss was positively correlated with initial mass. Therefore, body condition at the start of the breeding season was the most important determinant of reproductive effort. Mass loss was not related to age, in that it neither increased with age nor peaked in males that are usually the most reproductively active (ages 6 and 7). Thus, for reproductive effort in prime-aged males, our results do not support either the terminal investment hypothesis or the mating strategy-effort hypothesis

Squirrelpox virus reservoir expansion on the east coast of Ireland

The European red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) has suffered a 20 % decline in range in Ireland since the introduction of the eastern grey squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) in 1911. In the UK, squirrelpox virus (SQPV) has been identified as being a major contributor to the decline of red squirrel populations but has only recently been confirmed in a red squirrel from Wicklow in Ireland with anecdotal references to a previous outbreak in the Shankill area of south County Dublin and a case in Kilmacanogue, north County Wicklow. The current study examined a sample of grey squirrels from these areas for SQPV seroprevalence. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) tests were carried out on sera from 51 grey squirrels culled from two sites in south County Dublin, areas A and B, and a third site in north County Wicklow, area C. The results indicated declining SQPV seroprevalence rates moving northwards from Wicklow, 55 % in area C, 50 % in area B and 11 % in area A. The low levels of seropositivity in Killiney (A) suggest that this is the wave-front of grey squirrel expansion from Wicklow and that the population may not yet have reached the threshold density for SQPV transmission to the red squirrel population to occur. The results of this study indicate that there is potential overlap between seropositive grey squirrel populations and susceptible red squirrel populations with obvious implications for conservation and management.National Parks and Wildlife Servic