Does maternal condition or predation risk influence small mammal population dynamics?
- 17 May 2004
- Vol. 106 (1) , 176-184
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0030-1299.2004.12679.x
Abstract
There is strong debate over whether the intrinsic traits of individuals or the extrinsic environment exert the greater influence on small mammal population dynamics. We test the roles of maternal effects (an intrinsic factor) and predation risk (an extrinsic factor) in the population dynamics of wild strain house mice using a 2‐factor enclosure experiment. Pre‐release supplemental feeding with a high‐fat diet created female treatment founders that were 6–10% heavier than controls, a condition that we predicted would be passed on as a maternal effect. Predation risk was enhanced using regular application of predator (red fox Vulpes vulpes) scats. Founder populations of six females and six males released into eight, 15×15 m enclosures showed near exponential population growth over 17 weeks (maximum 3 generations). But there were no responses to either treatment in terms of survival, inherited body weights, fecundity or population size. We suggest that elevated maternal condition may have only minor and transient intergenerational effects with little long‐term consequence. We also suggest that the general significance of predator scats as a cue to predation risk to alter prey behaviour may have been overestimated. Hence our results question the role of either factor in causing long‐term responses that influence condition to affect population processes.This publication has 71 references indexed in Scilit:
- Mammal population cycles: evidence for intrinsic differences during snowshoe hare cyclesCanadian Journal of Zoology, 2003
- Prenatal Stress, Glucocorticoids and the Programming of the BrainJournal of Neuroendocrinology, 2001
- Does risk of predation by mammalian predators affect the spacing behaviour of rodents? Two large-scale experimentsOecologia, 2000
- The Particular Maternal Effect of Propagule Size, Especially Egg Size: Patterns, Models, Quality of Evidence and InterpretationsAmerican Zoologist, 1996
- Why are predator urines aversive to prey?Journal of Chemical Ecology, 1994
- Reproductive investment under fluctuating predation risk: Microtine rodents and small mustelidsEvolutionary Ecology, 1994
- Population cycles in microtines: The senescence hypothesisEvolutionary Ecology, 1994
- Use of predator odors to protect chick-peas from predation by laboratory and wild miceJournal of Chemical Ecology, 1993
- Maternal influence on juvenile growth rates in Belding's ground squirrel (Spermophilus beldingi)Canadian Journal of Zoology, 1991
- Differential Reproductive Success in a Peak Population of the Grey-Sided Vole Clethrionomys rufocanusOikos, 1987