Meeting Abstract
78.7 Monday, Jan. 6 11:45 Reproductive phenology of a food-hoarding mast seed consumer: resource- and density-dependent benefits of early breeding in red squirrels WILLIAMS, CT*; LANE, JE; HUMPHRIES, MM; MCADAM, AG; BOUTIN, S; Univ of Alaska Anchorage; Univ of Saskatchewan; McGill Univ; Univ of Guelph; Univ of Alberta ctwilliams@uaa.alaska.edu
The production of offspring by vertebrates is often timed to coincide with the annual peak in resource availability. However, capital breeders can extend the energetic benefits of a resource pulse by storing food or fat, thus relaxing the need for synchrony between energy supply and demand. Food-hoarding red squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) breeding in the boreal forest are reliant on cones from a masting conifer for their nutrition, yet lactation is typically completed before the annual crop of cones is available for consumption. We investigated the phenological response of red squirrels to annual variation in environmental conditions over a 20-year span and examined how intra- and inter-annual variation in the timing of reproduction affected offspring recruitment. Reproductive phenology was strongly affected by past resource availability with offspring born earlier in years following large cone crops, presumably because this affected the amount of capital available for reproduction. Early breeders had higher offspring survival and were more likely to renest following early litter loss. However, this only occurred under conditions of high population density, perhaps because late-born offspring are less competitive in obtaining a territory when vacancies are limited. Early breeders were also more likely to renest after successfully weaning their first litter, but renesting predominantly occurred during mast years, when recruitment into the population is high. Because of their increased propensity to renest and the higher survival rates of their offspring, early-breeders contribute more recruits to the population but the advantage of early breeding depends on population density and resource availability.
