The 'big spenders' of the steppe: sex-specific maternal allocation and twinning in the saiga antelope.

ABSTRACT: In polygynous mammals, males generally benefit more from extra allocation of maternal resources than females. However, limitations to sex-specific allocation are usually ignored. We propose the 'allocation constraint' hypothesis, whereby maternal resource allocation is more likely to follow life-history predictions in single sex litters than in mixed sex litters, due to limitations in prenatal resource targeting. Consequently, for polygynous species, males in mixed litters are likely to receive suboptimal maternal investment, which may have a negative effect on lifetime reproductive success. We test this hypothesis for the saiga antelope (Saiga tatarica), a highly polygynous species with the highest level of maternal allocation reported among ungulates. At such high reproductive output lev

SUBMITTER: Kuhl A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2176182 | biostudies-literature | 2007 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature