Meeting Abstract

P1.4  Thursday, Jan. 3  Evaluating the accuracy of morphometric indices of body condition LABOCHA, M.K.*; SCHUTZ , H; HAYES, J.P.; Univ. of Nevada, Reno; Univ. of Colorado, Boulder; Univ. of Nevada, Reno labo@unr.edu

Body condition is an important concept in evolutionary ecology and behavioral ecology, because many aspects of animal life history may be linked with condition (e.g. reproductive success, mortality). The most commonly used measures of body condition are based on easily measurable traits, such as body mass, body length, head length, and head width. The validity of these condition indices as proxies for body fat content (and other measures of condition) varies widely, and the effectiveness of these measures also varies across major vertebrate clades. Recently, it has been proposed that a better approach might be to use multiple regression to directly determine the relationship between condition and the morphometric variables typically used to calculate it. Two recent studies support that idea, but diverse condition indices are still widely used. One of the limitations of studies performed to date is that complete comparisons of a wide range of condition indices have typically not been performed in the same study. This makes comparisons of indices across studies difficult. To address this issue, we are performing a comprehensive study of morphometric condition indices in ““Mus musculus”” . We are empirically estimating the errors made in evaluating condition (measured as body fat) using numerous indices. We also are comparing the performance of these commonly used estimators with multiple regression directly on various morphometric variables. Supported by NSF grant IOS 0344994.