Paternal reproductive success drives sex allocation in a wild mammal

Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution
Mathieu DouhardFanie Pelletier

Abstract

Parents should bias sex allocation toward offspring of the sex most likely to provide higher fitness returns. Trivers and Willard proposed that for polygynous mammals, females should adjust sex-ratio at conception or bias allocation of resources toward the most profitable sex, according to their own body condition. However, the possibility that mammalian fathers may influence sex allocation has seldom been considered. Here, we show that the probability of having a son increased from 0.31 to 0.60 with sire reproductive success in wild bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis). Furthermore, our results suggest that females fertilized by relatively unsuccessful sires allocated more energy during lactation to daughters than to sons, while the opposite occurred for females fertilized by successful sires. The pattern of sex-biased offspring production appears adaptive because paternal reproductive success reduced the fitness of daughters and increased the average annual weaning success of sons, independently of maternal allocation to the offspring. Our results illustrate that sex allocation can be driven by paternal phenotype, with profound influences on the strength of sexual selection and on conflicts of interest between parents.

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Citations

Jul 7, 2017·BioEssays : News and Reviews in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology·Mathieu Douhard
May 9, 2019·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Aurelio F MaloPhilip Riordan
Sep 1, 2017·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Aurelio F MaloRobert C Lacy
Aug 7, 2016·Royal Society Open Science·A M EdwardsK Thomasson
Jun 12, 2019·The Journal of Animal Ecology·Marco Festa-BianchetFanie Pelletier
Feb 20, 2020·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Mathieu DouhardFanie Pelletier
Jul 3, 2019·Current Zoology·Francisco CeaceroLaureano Gallego
Nov 20, 2016·Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences·Elissa Z CameronLaura M Parsley
Feb 18, 2021·BioEssays : News and Reviews in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology·Mathieu Douhard, Benjamin Geffroy

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