Fertility of red deer in relation to area, age, body mass, and mandible length

Bertouille, Sabine; Crombrugghe, S. A. de

doi:10.1007/bf02192396

Cited by 19 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…This lower mass threshold was lower than thresholds previously postu lated, which were based on farmed Elk. Work with Red Deer (C. elaphus) also revealed strong relationships between pregnancy and mass (Albon et al 1983;Bertouille and de Crombrugghe 2002), although weights cannot be directly compared with our data because of subspecies differences.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 63%

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Factors Affecting Pregnancy in Free-ranging Elk, <em>Cervus elaphus nelsoni</em>, in Michigan

2009

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Uncertainty exists as to which factors are most closely related to probability of pregnancy in Elk (Cervus elaphus), which thresholds are key for managers who want to assess the potential productivity of free-ranging Elk herds, and whether these thresholds vary among populations. We examined relationships among pregnancy, age, and mass for 513 harvested freeranging Elk in Michigan, and compared relationships with other published models and with thresholds derived from other free-ranging and penned populations to see if relationships were consistent among populations. Pregnancy rates varied (χ 2 2 = 136.3; P < 0.0001) among yearling (0.30), prime-aged (2.5-11.5-year-olds; 0.88), and old (> 12.5-year-olds; 0.60) cows. Probability of pregnancy in adult cows was related to mass (χ 2 = 7.4; P = 0.006), age (χ 2 = 12.6; P = 0.0004) and age class (χ 2 = 16.4; P < 0.0001), but not to lactation status (χ 2 = 0.4; P = 0.515); pregnancy was also positively related (χ 2 = 15.8; P < 0.0001) to mass in yearlings. Probability of pregnancy increased 1.02× and 1.04× for each 1 kg increase in body mass of adult and yearling cows, respectively, and prime-aged cows were 4.9× more likely to conceive than old cows. Compared to thresholds derived primarily from penned or farmed Elk, both adult and yearling free-ranging Elk in Michigan and elsewhere were able to achieve higher levels of pregnancy at lower body mass. Thresholds also varied among free-ranging Elk populations. Given variation among populations, managers should calibrate mass-pregnancy relationships for their respective populations to determine whether condition is potentially limiting pregnancy in their populations.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 63%

“…We aged Elk to the exact year using cementum annuli from an extracted tooth or to approximate year using tooth eruption and wear (Keiss 1969). We also placed Elk into three categories, yearling (age 1.5), primeaged (2.5-11.5 years), or old (≥ 12.5 years), to test for differences among age classes (Bertouille and de Crombrugghe 2002).…”

Section: Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Factors Affecting Pregnancy in Free-ranging Elk, <em>Cervus elaphus nelsoni</em>, in Michigan

2009

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“…Moreover, we confirmed higher implantation failure in senescent females reported by Borg () and Hewison and Gaillard (). Decrease in reproductive outcome in senescent animals has been more often reported in red deer (Clutton‐Brock et al , Langvatn et al , Bertouille and Crombrugghe ) and in fallow deer (Langbein and Putman ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Factors affecting implantation failure in roe deer

Chirichella¹,

Pokorny

Bottero³

et al. 2018

J Wildl Manag

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Reproductive performance is one of the most important life‐history traits that should be routinely studied and considered in adaptive wildlife management. In the case of roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), a species with delayed implantation, which complicates studies on fetuses, corpora lutea (CL) counting is the only alternative for routine monitoring. However, because of a possible implantation failure, the reliability of this method is questionable, and factors influencing implantation success have been poorly understood so far. We analyzed 2,594 intact uteri of roe deer hunted from 2006–2015 in an Apennine population, central Italy, during winter (mid‐Jan to mid‐Mar). By comparing the number of CL and fetuses in the same individuals (i.e., success in blastocyst implantation), we revealed a mean implantation failure of 8.6% in a pooled sample set (regardless of the age and origin of animals), with a high inter‐annual variability (range = 3.6–19.8%). Contrary to adults (truex¯ ± SE = 11.1 ± 1.9%), the implantation failure in yearlings was low (4.4 ± 1.9%). Implantation success was affected by individual maternal characteristics (positive effect of body mass and negative effect of age), climatic condition in summer (positive effect of July temperature up to 23.4°C, and negative effect above this threshold), winter harshness (negative effect of snow cover duration), and altitude (negative relation with the elevation). Reproductive performance of adult female roe deer cannot be adequately measured by CL counts because of high inter‐annual variability in implantation failure and important effects of female attributes and environmental factors. However, for yearlings, which also express the highest variability in the ovulation rates, CL counts provide important information on their reproductive outcome because they have low implantation failure. © 2018 The Wildlife Society.

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“…The importance of age on hind reproduction, for example, has been supported in several populations (e.g., Albon et al. , Bertouille and de Crombrugghe ), while the role of other individual drivers appears to be less consistent, varying with latitude and habitats. Body mass and fat reserves had positive effects on hind pregnancy probability in Scottish populations (Albon et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Body size also showed contrasting effects on pregnancy probability in northern and central Europe (Mitchell and Brown , Albon et al. , Bertouille and de Crombrugghe ). The negative effect of lactation on the probability of being pregnant in the following reproductive season is strong in food‐limited environments (Clutton‐Brock et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The cooler the better? Indirect effect of spring–summer temperature on fecundity in a capital breeder

et al. 2018

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Female reproductive performance is a central component of ungulate population dynamics, and it can be influenced by individual, social, and environmental factors. Researchers have often assumed direct effects of different predictors on reproduction, yet more complex relationships should be considered when investigating temporal variations in life‐history traits within a broader eco‐evolutionary context. In this study, we explored direct effects of individual, social, and environmental predictors on female reproductive performance and investigated potential causal chains among variables. We analyzed the variation in fecundity, measured as the probability of being pregnant, in 215 adult female deer Cervus elaphus culled on the Italian Alps, with respect to age, body mass, kidney fat, jaw length, lactation status, population size, temperature and precipitation in spring–summer, temperature and snow depth in winter, and the delayed effect of spring–summer temperature. We used random forest and logistic regression models to select variables whose direct effects best explained variation in fecundity. Path analysis was used to test for alternative hypotheses of direct/indirect effects between pre‐selected weather (spring–summer temperature) and individual (age, kidney fat index [KFI]) predictors. The most important direct predictors of fecundity were age, kidney fat, and the interaction between kidney fat and spring–summer temperature. Path analysis supported the hypothesis that higher spring–summer temperature had negative, indirect effects on the probability of being pregnant, mediated by decreasing values of KFI. Our study revealed some complex, cause–effect relationships between weather stochasticity, body condition, and reproduction, possibly suggesting a conditional trade‐off between opportunity for reproduction and survival, and emphasizing how environmental variations and individual characteristics may interact to shape life‐history traits in ungulate populations.

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Fertility of red deer in relation to area, age, body mass, and mandible length

Cited by 19 publications

References 12 publications

Factors Affecting Pregnancy in Free-ranging Elk, <em>Cervus elaphus nelsoni</em>, in Michigan

Factors Affecting Pregnancy in Free-ranging Elk, <em>Cervus elaphus nelsoni</em>, in Michigan

Factors affecting implantation failure in roe deer

The cooler the better? Indirect effect of spring–summer temperature on fecundity in a capital breeder

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