10.5061/DRYAD.K7R52
Hayward, Adam D.
East Michigan Institute
Mar, Khyne U.
University of Sheffield
Lahdenperä, Mirkka
University of Turku
Lummaa, Virpi
University of Sheffield
Data from: Early reproductive investment, senescence and lifetime
reproductive success in female Asian elephants
Dryad
dataset
2014
Disposable soma
Evolution of ageing
Life History Evolution
trade-offs
Antagonistic pleiotropy
2014-02-03T16:24:02Z
2014-02-03T16:24:02Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1111/jeb.12350
679435 bytes
1
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
The evolutionary theory of senescence posits that as the probability of
extrinsic mortality increases with age, selection should favour early-life
over late-life reproduction. Studies on natural vertebrate populations
show early reproduction may impair later-life performance, but the
consequences for lifetime fitness have rarely been determined, and little
is known of whether similar patterns apply to mammals which typically live
for several decades. We used a longitudinal dataset on Asian elephants
(Elephas maximus) to investigate associations between early-life
reproduction and female age-specific survival, fecundity and offspring
survival to independence, as well as lifetime breeding success (lifetime
number of calves produced). Females showed low fecundity following sexual
maturity, followed by a rapid increase to a peak at age 19 and a
subsequent decline. High early life reproductive output (before the peak
of performance) was positively associated with subsequent age-specific
fecundity and offspring survival, but significantly impaired a
female's own later-life survival. Despite the negative effects of
early reproduction on late-life survival, early reproduction is under
positive selection through a positive association with lifetime breeding
success. Our results suggest a trade-off between early reproduction and
later survival which is maintained by strong selection for high early
fecundity, and thus support the prediction from life history theory that
high investment in reproductive success in early life is favoured by
selection through lifetime fitness despite costs to later-life survival.
That maternal survival in elephants depends on previous reproductive
investment also has implications for the success of (semi-)captive
breeding programmes of this endangered species.
Hayward et al_Elephant senescence_JEB dryad dataContains two dataframes in
an Excel spreadsheet. The first of these gives age-specific fecundity and
survival for all female elephants aged >5 years. All abbreviations
are as described in the main text. These contain data allowing analysis of
reproduction across life as well as survival and reproduction in later
life as a function of age and early-life fecundity and the association
between early-life fecundity and lifetime breeding success. The second
dataframe contains data on calf survival, which may be used for the
analysis of age-specific calf survival in later life in relation to
early-life fecundity.