Data from: How many cubs can a mum nurse? Maternal age and size influence litter size in polar bears
Life history theory predicts that females' age and size affect the level of maternal investment in current reproduction, balanced against future reproductive effort, maintenance and survival. Using long-term (30 years) individual data on 193 female polar bears (Ursus maritimus), we assessed age...
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ftdryad:oai:v1.datadryad.org:10255/dryad.210170 2023-05-15T18:42:25+02:00 Data from: How many cubs can a mum nurse? Maternal age and size influence litter size in polar bears Folio, Dorinda Marie Aars, Jon Gimenez, Olivier Derocher, Andrew E. Wiig, Oystein Cubaynes, Sarah 2019-04-02T18:26:41Z http://hdl.handle.net/10255/dryad.210170 https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.mb2d353 unknown doi:10.5061/dryad.mb2d353/1 doi:10.1098/rsbl.2019.0070 doi:10.5061/dryad.mb2d353 Folio DM, Aars J, Gimenez O, Derocher AE, Wiig Ø, Cubaynes S (2019) How many cubs can a mum nurse? Maternal age and size influence litter size in polar bears. Biology Letters 15(5): 20190070. http://hdl.handle.net/10255/dryad.210170 polar bear reproductive success reproductive senescence individual heterogeneity maternal traits Article 2019 ftdryad https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.mb2d353 https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.mb2d353/1 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2019.0070 2020-01-01T16:25:11Z Life history theory predicts that females' age and size affect the level of maternal investment in current reproduction, balanced against future reproductive effort, maintenance and survival. Using long-term (30 years) individual data on 193 female polar bears (Ursus maritimus), we assessed age- and size-specific variation on litter size. Litter size varied with maternal age, younger females had higher chances of losing a cub during their first months of life. Results suggest an improvement of reproductive abilities early in life due to experience with subsequent reproductive senescence. Litter size increased with maternal size, indicating that size may reflect individual quality. We also found an optimum in the probability of having twins, suggesting stabilizing selection on female body size. Heterogeneity was observed among the largest females, suggesting that large size comes at a cost. Article in Journal/Newspaper Ursus maritimus Dryad Digital Repository (Duke University) |
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Open Polar |
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Dryad Digital Repository (Duke University) |
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ftdryad |
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topic |
polar bear reproductive success reproductive senescence individual heterogeneity maternal traits |
spellingShingle |
polar bear reproductive success reproductive senescence individual heterogeneity maternal traits Folio, Dorinda Marie Aars, Jon Gimenez, Olivier Derocher, Andrew E. Wiig, Oystein Cubaynes, Sarah Data from: How many cubs can a mum nurse? Maternal age and size influence litter size in polar bears |
topic_facet |
polar bear reproductive success reproductive senescence individual heterogeneity maternal traits |
description |
Life history theory predicts that females' age and size affect the level of maternal investment in current reproduction, balanced against future reproductive effort, maintenance and survival. Using long-term (30 years) individual data on 193 female polar bears (Ursus maritimus), we assessed age- and size-specific variation on litter size. Litter size varied with maternal age, younger females had higher chances of losing a cub during their first months of life. Results suggest an improvement of reproductive abilities early in life due to experience with subsequent reproductive senescence. Litter size increased with maternal size, indicating that size may reflect individual quality. We also found an optimum in the probability of having twins, suggesting stabilizing selection on female body size. Heterogeneity was observed among the largest females, suggesting that large size comes at a cost. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Folio, Dorinda Marie Aars, Jon Gimenez, Olivier Derocher, Andrew E. Wiig, Oystein Cubaynes, Sarah |
author_facet |
Folio, Dorinda Marie Aars, Jon Gimenez, Olivier Derocher, Andrew E. Wiig, Oystein Cubaynes, Sarah |
author_sort |
Folio, Dorinda Marie |
title |
Data from: How many cubs can a mum nurse? Maternal age and size influence litter size in polar bears |
title_short |
Data from: How many cubs can a mum nurse? Maternal age and size influence litter size in polar bears |
title_full |
Data from: How many cubs can a mum nurse? Maternal age and size influence litter size in polar bears |
title_fullStr |
Data from: How many cubs can a mum nurse? Maternal age and size influence litter size in polar bears |
title_full_unstemmed |
Data from: How many cubs can a mum nurse? Maternal age and size influence litter size in polar bears |
title_sort |
data from: how many cubs can a mum nurse? maternal age and size influence litter size in polar bears |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10255/dryad.210170 https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.mb2d353 |
genre |
Ursus maritimus |
genre_facet |
Ursus maritimus |
op_relation |
doi:10.5061/dryad.mb2d353/1 doi:10.1098/rsbl.2019.0070 doi:10.5061/dryad.mb2d353 Folio DM, Aars J, Gimenez O, Derocher AE, Wiig Ø, Cubaynes S (2019) How many cubs can a mum nurse? Maternal age and size influence litter size in polar bears. Biology Letters 15(5): 20190070. http://hdl.handle.net/10255/dryad.210170 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.mb2d353 https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.mb2d353/1 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2019.0070 |
_version_ |
1766232075279532032 |