Live fast, don't die young: Survival–reproduction trade‐offs in long‐lived income breeders

• Published in: Journal of Animal Ecology
• Main Authors: Culina, Antica, Linton, Danielle Marie, Pradel, Roger, Bouwhuis, Sandra, Macdonald, David
• Other Authors: WildCRU, University of Oxford, Department of Animal Ecology (NIOO-KNAW), Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW), Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive (CEFE), Université Paul-Valéry - Montpellier 3 (UPVM)-Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Centre international d'études supérieures en sciences agronomiques (Montpellier SupAgro)-École pratique des hautes études (EPHE), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université de Montpellier (UM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD France-Sud )-Institut national d’études supérieures agronomiques de Montpellier (Montpellier SupAgro), Institute of Avian Research, Wildlife Conservation Research Unit Oxford
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2019
• Subjects: Myotis daubentonii; Myotis nattereri; Daubenton's bat; Natterer's bat; Bats; Multi-event model; Survival-reproduction trade-offs; [SDV.EE]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Ecology; environment; [SDV.BA.ZV]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Animal biology/Vertebrate Zoology
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-02125696; https://hal.science/hal-02125696/document; https://hal.science/hal-02125696/file/Journal%20of%20Animal%20Ecology%20-%202019%20-%20Culina%20-%20Live%20fast%20don%20t%20die%20young%20Survival%20reproduction%20trade%25u2010offs%20in%20long%25u2010lived.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.12957

International audience Trade-offs between survival and reproduction are at the core of life-history theory, and essential to understanding the evolution of reproductive tactics as well as population dynamics and stability. Factors influencing these trade-offs are multiple and often addressed in isolation. Further problems arise as reproductive states and survival in wild populations are estimated based on imperfect and potentially biased observation processes, which might lead to flawed conclusions. In this study, we aimed at elucidating trade-offs between current reproduction (both pregnancy and lactation), survival and future reproduction, including the specific costs of first reproduction, in long-lived, income breeding small mammals, an under-studied group. We developed a novel statistical framework that encapsulates the breeding life cycle of females, and accounts for incomplete information on female pregnancy and lactation and imperfect and biased recapture rates. We applied this framework to longitudinal data on two sympatric, closely related bat species (Myotis daubentonii and M. nattereri). We revealed the existence of several, to our knowledge previously unknown, trends in survival and breeding of these closely related, sympatric species and detected remarkable differences in their age and costs of first reproduction, as well as their survival-reproduction trade-offs. Our results indicate that species with this type of life history exhibit a mixture of patterns expected for long-lived and short-lived animals, and between income and capital breeders. Thus, we call for more studies to be conducted in similar study systems, increasing our ability to fully understand the evolutionary origin and fitness effects of trade-offs and senescence.