Male personality, life-history strategies and reproductive success in a promiscuous mammal.
Recent theoretical work suggests that personality is a component of life history, but links between personality and either age-dependent reproductive success or life-history strategy are yet to be established. Using quantitative genetic analyses on a long-term pedigree we estimated indices of boldness and docility for 105 bighorn sheep rams (Ovis canadensis), born between 1983 and 1999, and compared these indices to their reproductive history from 2 years of age until death. Docility and boldness were highly heritable and negatively genetically correlated. Docile and bold rams survived longer than indocile and shy rams. Docility and boldness had a weak negative effect on reproductive success early in life, but a strong positive effect on older rams. Our findings highlight an important role of personality on reproductive success and suggest that personality could be an important component of life-history strategy.
Réale
D
D
Canada Research Chair in Behavioural Ecology, Groupe de Recherche en Ecologie Comportementale et Animale, Département des Sciences Biologiques, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada. reale.denis@uqam.ca
Martin
J
J
Coltman
D W
DW
Poissant
J
J
Festa-Bianchet
M
M
D000818:Animals; D008018:Life Cycle Stages; D008136:Longevity; D008297:Male; D012098:Reproduction; D012756:Sheep / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*