Sources of variance in a female fertility signal: exaggerated estrous swellings in a natural population of baboons.

ABSTRACT: Signals of fertility in female animals are of increasing interest to evolutionary biologists, a development that coincides with increasing interest in male mate choice and the potential for female traits to evolve under sexual selection. We characterized variation in size of an exaggerated female fertility signal in baboons and investigated the sources of that variance. The number of sexual cycles that a female had experienced after her most recent pregnancy ("cycles since resumption") was the strongest predictor of swelling size. Furthermore, the relationship between cycles since resumption and swelling size was most evident during rainy periods and was not evident during times of drought. Finally, we found significant differences in swelling size between individual females; these differe

SUBMITTER: Fitzpatrick CL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4114734 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature