Asian elephants exhibit post-reproductive lifespans
Abstract Background The existence of extended post-reproductive lifespan is an evolutionary puzzle, and its taxonomic prevalence is debated. One way of measuring post-reproductive life is with post-reproductive representation, the proportion of adult years lived by females after cessation of reprodu...
Published in: | BMC Evolutionary Biology |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , , |
Other Authors: | , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
2019
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12862-019-1513-1 http://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s12862-019-1513-1.pdf http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12862-019-1513-1/fulltext.html |
id |
crspringernat:10.1186/s12862-019-1513-1 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
crspringernat:10.1186/s12862-019-1513-1 2023-05-15T18:33:25+02:00 Asian elephants exhibit post-reproductive lifespans Chapman, Simon N. Jackson, John Htut, Win Lummaa, Virpi Lahdenperä, Mirkka Academy of Finland Natural Environment Research Council Koneen Säätiö H2020 European Research Council 2019 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12862-019-1513-1 http://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s12862-019-1513-1.pdf http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12862-019-1513-1/fulltext.html en eng Springer Science and Business Media LLC http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ CC-BY BMC Evolutionary Biology volume 19, issue 1 ISSN 1471-2148 Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics journal-article 2019 crspringernat https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-019-1513-1 2022-01-04T08:47:49Z Abstract Background The existence of extended post-reproductive lifespan is an evolutionary puzzle, and its taxonomic prevalence is debated. One way of measuring post-reproductive life is with post-reproductive representation, the proportion of adult years lived by females after cessation of reproduction. Analyses of post-reproductive representation in mammals have claimed that only humans and some toothed whale species exhibit extended post-reproductive life, but there are suggestions of a post-reproductive stage for false killer whales and Asian elephants. Here, we investigate the presence of post-reproductive lifespan in Asian elephants using an extended demographic dataset collected from semi-captive timber elephants in Myanmar. Furthermore, we investigate the sensitivity of post-reproductive representation values to availability of long-term data over 50 years. Results We find support for the presence of an extended post-reproductive stage in Asian elephants, and that post-reproductive representation and its underlying demographic rates depend on the length of study period in a long-lived animal. Conclusions The extended post-reproductive lifespan is unlikely due to physiological reproductive cessation, and may instead be driven by mating preferences or condition-dependent fertility. Our results also show that it is crucial to revisit such population measures in long-lived species as more data is collected, and if the typical lifespan of the species exceeds the initial study period. Article in Journal/Newspaper toothed whale Springer Nature (via Crossref) BMC Evolutionary Biology 19 1 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Springer Nature (via Crossref) |
op_collection_id |
crspringernat |
language |
English |
topic |
Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics |
spellingShingle |
Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics Chapman, Simon N. Jackson, John Htut, Win Lummaa, Virpi Lahdenperä, Mirkka Asian elephants exhibit post-reproductive lifespans |
topic_facet |
Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics |
description |
Abstract Background The existence of extended post-reproductive lifespan is an evolutionary puzzle, and its taxonomic prevalence is debated. One way of measuring post-reproductive life is with post-reproductive representation, the proportion of adult years lived by females after cessation of reproduction. Analyses of post-reproductive representation in mammals have claimed that only humans and some toothed whale species exhibit extended post-reproductive life, but there are suggestions of a post-reproductive stage for false killer whales and Asian elephants. Here, we investigate the presence of post-reproductive lifespan in Asian elephants using an extended demographic dataset collected from semi-captive timber elephants in Myanmar. Furthermore, we investigate the sensitivity of post-reproductive representation values to availability of long-term data over 50 years. Results We find support for the presence of an extended post-reproductive stage in Asian elephants, and that post-reproductive representation and its underlying demographic rates depend on the length of study period in a long-lived animal. Conclusions The extended post-reproductive lifespan is unlikely due to physiological reproductive cessation, and may instead be driven by mating preferences or condition-dependent fertility. Our results also show that it is crucial to revisit such population measures in long-lived species as more data is collected, and if the typical lifespan of the species exceeds the initial study period. |
author2 |
Academy of Finland Natural Environment Research Council Koneen Säätiö H2020 European Research Council |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Chapman, Simon N. Jackson, John Htut, Win Lummaa, Virpi Lahdenperä, Mirkka |
author_facet |
Chapman, Simon N. Jackson, John Htut, Win Lummaa, Virpi Lahdenperä, Mirkka |
author_sort |
Chapman, Simon N. |
title |
Asian elephants exhibit post-reproductive lifespans |
title_short |
Asian elephants exhibit post-reproductive lifespans |
title_full |
Asian elephants exhibit post-reproductive lifespans |
title_fullStr |
Asian elephants exhibit post-reproductive lifespans |
title_full_unstemmed |
Asian elephants exhibit post-reproductive lifespans |
title_sort |
asian elephants exhibit post-reproductive lifespans |
publisher |
Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12862-019-1513-1 http://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s12862-019-1513-1.pdf http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12862-019-1513-1/fulltext.html |
genre |
toothed whale |
genre_facet |
toothed whale |
op_source |
BMC Evolutionary Biology volume 19, issue 1 ISSN 1471-2148 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-019-1513-1 |
container_title |
BMC Evolutionary Biology |
container_volume |
19 |
container_issue |
1 |
_version_ |
1766218028528173056 |