School of Biological Sciences, University of Queensland, St Lucia, 4072, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
Commun Biol. 2023 Feb 16;6(1):162. doi: 10.1038/s42003-023-04509-7.
Recent studies have shown behavioural plasticity in mating strategies can increase a population's ability to cope with anthropogenic impacts. The eastern Australian humpback whale population was whaled almost to extinction in the 1960s (~200 whales) and has recovered to pre-whaling numbers (>20,000 whales). Using an 18-year dataset, where the population increased from approximately 3,700 to 27,000 whales, we found that as male density increased over time, the use of mating tactics shifted towards more males engaging in non-singing physical competition over singing. Singing was the more successful tactic in earlier post-whaling years whereas non-singing behaviour was the more successful tactic in later years. Together, our study uncovers how changes in both local, and population-level male density resulted in a shift in the frequency, and fitness pay-off, of alternative mating tactics in a wild animal. This individual-level plasticity in male humpback whale mating tactics likely contributed to minimising their risk of extinction following a dramatic change in their social landscape due to whaling.
最近的研究表明，交配策略的行为可塑性可以提高种群应对人为影响的能力。东澳大利亚座头鲸种群在 20 世纪 60 年代几乎被捕鲸灭绝（约 200 头），现已恢复到捕鲸前的数量（超过 20000 头）。利用一个 18 年的数据集，我们发现随着雄性密度的增加，交配策略发生了变化，越来越多的雄性通过非唱歌的身体竞争来取代唱歌。在更早的捕鲸后年份，唱歌是更成功的策略，而在后来的年份，不唱歌的行为则是更成功的策略。总的来说，我们的研究揭示了局部和种群水平上的雄性密度变化如何导致替代交配策略的频率和适应性收益发生变化，这在野生动物中是很少见的。在它们的社会景观因捕鲸而发生巨大变化后，雄性座头鲸交配策略的这种个体可塑性可能有助于降低它们灭绝的风险。
