Faecal parasites increase with age but not reproductive effort in wild female chimpanzees.

ABSTRACT: Energy investment in reproduction is predicted to trade off against other necessary physiological functions like immunity, but it is unclear to what extent this impacts fitness in long-lived species. Among mammals, female primates, and especially apes, exhibit extensive periods of investment in each offspring. During this time, energy diverted to gestation and lactation is hypothesized to incur short and long-term deficits in maternal immunity and lead to accelerated ageing. We examined the relationship between reproduction and immunity, as measured by faecal parasite counts, in wild female chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) of Kibale National Park, Uganda. While we observed higher parasite shedding (counts of eggs, cysts and larvae) in pregnant chimpanzees relative to cyc

SUBMITTER: Phillips SR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7540947 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature