Journal ArticleDOI
Birthdate, mass and survival in mountain goat kids: effects of maternal characteristics and forage quality
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The results suggest that mountain goats are constrained to give birth in a short birth season synchronised with forage productivity, and a positive effect of mass on survival to 1 year when the sexes were pooled.Abstract:
In temperate environments, early-born ungulates may enjoy a longer growth period before winter, and so attain a higher body mass and an increased probability of survival compared to late-born ones. We assessed the effects of maternal characteristics, forage quality and population density on kid birthdate, mass and survival in a population of marked mountain goats (Oreamnos americanus) in Alberta. The duration and timing of the birth season were similar in all years. Births were highly synchronised: 80% of kids were born within 2 weeks of the first birth. Maternal age, maternal social rank and density did not affect kid birthdate or mass. Previous breeding experience was not related to kid birthdate, but kids born to pluriparous mothers were heavier during summer than kids born to primiparous mothers. Male and female kids had similar mass and accumulated mass linearly during summer. Early-born kids were heavier than late-born kids. Faecal crude protein (FCP) in late spring and maternal mass were positively related to kid mass. Survival to weaning appeared higher for males (90%) than for females (78%), but survival to 1 year was 65% for both sexes. FCP in late spring, density, birthdate and mass did not affect kid survival to weaning in either sex. Survival to 1 year increased with FCP in late spring for females, but not for males. Survival to 1 year was independent of birthdate for both sexes, but heavy females survived better than light ones. Multiple logistic regression revealed a positive effect of mass on survival to 1 year when the sexes were pooled. Our results suggest that mountain goats are constrained to give birth in a short birth season synchronised with forage productivity.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Nutrition integrates environmental responses of ungulates.
TL;DR: Results from the simulation model and uncertainty analysis indicate that percent body fat rather than body mass in early winter is most important in determining whether animals die, live without reproducing, or live and reproduce.
Book ChapterDOI
Empirical Evidence of Density- Dependence in Populations of Large Herbivores
Christophe Bonenfant,Jean-Michel Gaillard,Tim Coulson,Marco Festa-Bianchet,Anne Loison,Mathieu Garel,Leif Egil Loe,Pierrick Blanchard,Nathalie Pettorelli,Norman Owen-Smith,J. Du Toit,Patrick Duncan +11 more
TL;DR: How body mass and demographic parameters vary with population density in large herbivores is reviewed, finding little support for higher sensitivity to increasing density in the life history traits of males compared to females, except for young age classes.
Journal ArticleDOI
Early onset of vegetation growth vs. rapid green-up: impacts on juvenile mountain ungulates
Nathalie Pettorelli,Fanie Pelletier,Fanie Pelletier,Achaz von Hardenberg,Marco Festa-Bianchet,Steeve D. Côté +5 more
TL;DR: The results suggest that attempts to forecast how warmer winters and springs will affect animal population dynamics and life histories in alpine environments should consider factors influencing the rate of changes in primary production during green-up and the timing of vegetation onset.
Journal ArticleDOI
Individual variation in reproductive costs of reproduction: high‐quality females always do better
TL;DR: Offspring survival was lower in bighorn ewes following years of successful breeding than after years when no lamb was produced, suggesting that a cost of reproduction only occurred for low-quality females.
Journal ArticleDOI
The role of males in the dynamics of ungulate populations
TL;DR: It is demonstrated that if the dynamics of a population can be described with a first-order auto-regressive process in a log-linear framework, the asymmetry between the effects of females on the male dynamics and vice versa can introduce a second order process.
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