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Conservation: Reproductive collapse in saiga antelope harems
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Milner-Gulland, E. J. Bukreeva, O. M. Coulson, Tim Lushchekina, A. A. Kholodova, Marina V. Bekenov, A. B. Grachev, Iuri A. |
| Copyright Year | 2003 |
| Abstract | A common assumption is that breeding in polygnous systems is not limited by the number of males because one male can inseminate many females. But here we show that reproductive collapse in the critically endangered saiga antelope (Saiga tatarica tatarica) is likely to have been caused by a catastrophic drop in the number of adult males in this harem-breeding ungulate, probably due to selective poaching for their horns. Fecundity and calf survival are known to be affected by markedly skewed sex ratios, but in the saiga antelope the sex ratio has become so distorted as to lead to a drastic decline in the number of pregnancies — a finding that has implications both for the conservation of the species and for understanding the reproductive ecology of polygynous ungulates. |
| Starting Page | 135 |
| Ending Page | 135 |
| Page Count | 1 |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| DOI | 10.1038/422135a |
| PubMed reference number | 12634775 |
| Journal | Medline |
| Volume Number | 422 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://www.iccs.org.uk/wp-content/papers/Milner-Gulland2003Nature.pdf |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://doi.org/10.1038/422135a |
| Journal | Nature |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
