Pregnancy Failure in the Red-Backed Vole, Clethrionomys gapperi

Clulow, F. V.; Franchetto, E. A.; Langford, P. E.

doi:10.2307/1380451

Cited by 13 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…2 ). Overall, these results confirm earlier findings: in many rodent species, females breeding for the first time were more likely to interrupt their pregnancy than parous females after male turnover (Stehn and Jannett 1981 ; Clulow et al 1982 , but see Chipman and Fox 1966 ). Moreover, younger females are more likely to interrupt a pregnancy than older females (Clulow and Langford 1971 ; Heske 1987 ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

“…Since in previous experiments on the Bruce effect in other rodent species (e.g., Clulow et al 1982 ) not all but a fraction of females terminated pregnancies after male replacement, we expected a bimodal distribution of birth dates for the replaced male treatments, including a first peak of early births around day 20 and a second peak of late births around day 27. For the returned male treatment, we expected a unimodal distribution, peaking at early births around experimental day 20.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…The combination YY-n, which occurs at intermediate densities, may be intermediate also in the rate of delayed births. There are indications that females of different cohorts are differentially likely to show the Bruce effect: first time breeders more likely interrupted a pregnancy than experienced breeders (Stehn and Jannett 1981 ; Clulow et al 1982 , but see Chipman and Fox 1966 ); and younger females more likely than older females (Clulow and Langford 1971 ; Heske 1987 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Bruce effect revisited: is pregnancy termination in female rodents an adaptation to ensure breeding success after male turnover in low densities?

2017

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than year-born and multiparous females. Taken together, our results suggest that the Bruce effect may be an adaptive breeding strategy for rodent females in cyclic populations specifically at low densities in the increase phase, when isolated, overwintered animals associate in MF pairs. During population lows infanticide risk and inbreeding risk may then be higher than during population highs, while also the fitness value of a litter in an increasing population is higher. Therefore, the Bruce effect may be adaptive for females during annual population lows in the increase phases, even at the costs of delaying reproduction.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 90%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Bruce effect revisited: is pregnancy termination in female rodents an adaptation to ensure breeding success after male turnover in low densities?

2017

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“…It is possible that more of the reported cases of strange-male induced pregnancy block in the literature could be reinterpreted as responses to the removal of the mate. Such a literature already exists, investigating the social factors involved in the maintenance of successful pregnancy in reflex ovulators: the presence of the mate for an extended time after mating has been demonstrated to have a significant, positive effect on the number of females which will successfully litter in field voles (Microtus ochrogaster; Richmond & Stehn, 1976), montane voles (M. montanus; Berger & Negus, 1982), meadow voles (M. pennsylvanicus; Storey, 1986) and redbacked voles (Clethrionomys gapperi; Clulow et al, 1982).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of pre- and post-copulatory pair contact on pregnancy success in Djungarian hamsters, Phodopus campbelli

Wynne‐Edwards¹,

Huck²,

Lisk³

1987

Reproduction

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Females housed with their mates for 3 or 4 days before mating took place (i.e. early in the oestrous cycle at the time of introduction to the mate) were significantly more likely to litter than were females housed with their mates for only 1 or 2 days before mating. The duration of post-copulatory pair contact had a complex effect on pregnancy success. While only 41% of females littered when they had 24 h of post-copulatory pair contact, females exposed to either longer or shorter durations of post-copulatory pair contact littered at significantly higher rates. Exposure to a strange male 24-48 h after mating did not produce a strange-male induced pregnancy block. The critical parameter responsible for the decrease in the number of females littering was the absence of the mate, irrespective of the presence or absence of a strange male. If this pattern of pregnancy block is adaptive for females, it seems probable that females in the wild require substantial levels of paternal investment by their mates.

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“…Interruption of early pregnancy (before implantation), also known as pregnancy block or 'Bruce effect' [32][33][34], has been discussed to reduce a female's investment into offspring that might afterwards be killed by an unknown, invading male [35][36][37]. Pregnancy block has been recorded under both laboratory and wild conditions in carnivores [38], primates [39,40], rodents [32,34,41,42] and ungulates [43]. While female mice block pregnancy before implantation [32], other mammalian species, for instance, voles and rats, can obstruct pregnancies at later stages [42,[44][45][46][47][48].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of male quality in sequential mate choice: pregnancy replacement in small mammals?

Vodjerek,

Erixon,

Mendes Ferreira

et al. 2024

R. Soc. Open Sci.

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Females mainly increase their reproductive success by improving the quality of their mates and need to be discriminative in their mate choices. Here, we investigate whether female mammals can trade up sire quality in sequential mate choice during already progressed pregnancies. A male-induced pregnancy termination (functional ‘Bruce effect’) could thus have an adaptive function in mate choice as a functional part of a pregnancy replacement. We used bank voles ( Myodes glareolus ) as a model system and exchanged the breeding male in the early second trimester of a potential pregnancy. Male quality was determined using urine marking values. Females were offered a sequence of either high- then low-quality male (HL) or a low- then high-quality male (LH). The majority of females bred with high-quality males independent of their position in the sequence, which may indicate a pregnancy replacement in LH but not in HL. The body size of the second male, which could have been related to the coercion of females by males into remating, did not explain late pregnancies. Thus, pregnancy replacement, often discussed as a counterstrategy to infanticide, may constitute adaptive mate choice in female mammals, and female choice may induce pregnancy replacement in mammals.

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Pregnancy Failure in the Red-Backed Vole, Clethrionomys gapperi

Cited by 13 publications

References 0 publications

The Bruce effect revisited: is pregnancy termination in female rodents an adaptation to ensure breeding success after male turnover in low densities?

The Bruce effect revisited: is pregnancy termination in female rodents an adaptation to ensure breeding success after male turnover in low densities?

Influence of pre- and post-copulatory pair contact on pregnancy success in Djungarian hamsters, Phodopus campbelli

The role of male quality in sequential mate choice: pregnancy replacement in small mammals?

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