title: The relationship between phenotypic variation among offspring and mother body mass in wild boar: evidence of coin-flipping?
abstract: 1. In highly variable environments, the optimal reproductive tactics of iteroparous organisms should minimize variance in yearly reproductive success to maximize the long-term average reproductive success. To minimize among-year variation in reproductive success, individuals can either minimize the variance in the number of offspring produced at each reproductive attempt (classical bet-hedging) or maximize the phenotypic diversity of offspring produced within or among reproductive attempts (coin-flipping). 2. From a long-term detailed study of an intensively exploited population facing a highly unpredictable environment, we identify a continuum of reproductive tactics in wild boar females depending on their body mass. 3. At one end, light females adjusted litter size to their body mass and produced highly similar-sized offspring within a litter. These females fitted the hypothesis of individual optimization commonly reported in warm-blooded species, which involves both an optimal mass and an optimal number of offspring for a given mother. At the other end of the continuum, heavy females produced litters of variable size including a mixture of heavy and light offspring within litters. 4. Prolific heavy wild boar females diversify the phenotype of their offspring, providing a first evidence for coin-flipping in a warm-blooded species.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Evolutive, UMR 5558, Université de Lyon, Université Lyon 1, F-69622, Villeurbanne, France; Office National de la Chasse et de la Faune Sauvage, 2 Bis Rue des Religieuses, BP 1952120, Châteauvillain, France; UMR 5175, Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive, campus CNRS, 1919 route de Mende, 34293, Montpellier Cedex 5, France.
authors.forename: Marlène
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gamelon
authors.forename: Jean-Michel
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Gaillard
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Baubet
authors.forename: Sébastien
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Devillard
authors.forename: Ludovic
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Say
authors.forename: Serge
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Brandt
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Gimenez
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001835:Body Weight / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D047109:Fetal Development / Q000502:physiology*; D005602:France; D008098:Litter Size / Q000502:physiology*; D010641:Phenotype; D011247:Pregnancy / Q000502:physiology*; D012621:Seasons; D034421:Sus scrofa / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: Sus scrofa scrofa; bet‐hedging; mammal; phenotypic plasticity; reproductive tactic