Peláez Marta, Sanuy Isabel, Peral Juan Carlos, Esteban José Luis Álvarez, Lavín Santiago, Serrano Emmanuel, Perea Ramón
Departamento de Sistemas y Recursos Naturales, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
Wildlife Ecology & Health group (WE&H) and Servei d'Ecopatologia de Fauna Salvatge (SEFaS). Facultat de Veterinària, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Barcelona, Spain.
Integr Zool. 2022 May;17(3):396-407. doi: 10.1111/1749-4877.12535. Epub 2021 Apr 2.
Recent research has challenged the idea that cervid antlers are such costly traits, supporting the assertion early-life antler investment is an honest signal of adult phenotypic quality. However, inferences were made based on antler measurements while growing (velvet) and thus, studies on fully-formed clean antlers are needed to avoid possible bias caused by the inter-individual variation in antler growth phenology. We studied a semi-captive population of European roe deer inhabiting a sub-Mediterranean area (Valsemana research station) and living under optimal conditions (ad libitum food supply and veterinary care). Based on repeated measurements taken from 146 individuals, we assessed whether allocation to secondary sexual traits during early life affected body mass or antler development during adulthood. Furthermore, we evaluated which body measurements better predicted future male quality. Additionally, using 488 individuals, we described age-class-specific variation in male body measurements and assessed the decline in antler size between adult and senescent stages (i.e. magnitude of senescence). Results agree with the assertion that there is no negative effect of a high investment in antler during early life on adult antler size or body mass, but we suggest the use of clean antlers as a more robust and reliable measure. The variables that better predicted body mass during adulthood were yearling body mass and body size at 6 months. Antler score between 10 and 18 months resulted in the best indicator of adult antler size. Finally, we support the idea that the magnitude of senescence in antler size is smaller in environments with higher resource availability during winter.
最近的研究对鹿的鹿角是如此昂贵的特征这一观点提出了挑战，支持了早期鹿角投资是成年表型质量的诚实信号这一论断。然而，这些推断是基于鹿角生长（鹿茸期）时的测量得出的，因此，需要对完全长成的干净鹿角进行研究，以避免鹿角生长物候个体间差异可能导致的偏差。我们研究了生活在亚地中海地区（瓦尔塞马纳研究站）且处于最佳条件下（自由采食和兽医护理）的半圈养欧洲狍种群。基于对146只个体的重复测量，我们评估了早期生活中对第二性征的分配是否会影响成年期的体重或鹿角发育。此外，我们评估了哪些身体测量指标能更好地预测未来雄性的质量。另外，我们利用488只个体，描述了雄性身体测量指标在不同年龄组的差异，并评估了成年期和衰老期之间鹿角大小的下降情况（即衰老程度）。结果与早期生活中对鹿角的高投资对成年鹿角大小或体重没有负面影响这一论断一致，但我们建议使用干净的鹿角作为更稳健和可靠的测量指标。在成年期能更好地预测体重的变量是一岁时的体重和6个月时的身体大小。10至18个月之间的鹿角评分是成年鹿角大小的最佳指标。最后，我们支持这样一种观点，即在冬季资源可用性较高的环境中，鹿角大小的衰老程度较小。
