NDLI: Foraging competition in larger groups overrides harassment avoidance benefits in female reindeer (Rangifer tarandus)

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Uccheddu, Stefania Body, Guillaume Weladji, Robert B. Holand, Øystein Nieminen, Mauri
Copyright Year	2015
Abstract	Male harassment toward females during the breeding season may have a negative effect on their reproductive success by disturbing their foraging activity, thereby inducing somatic costs. Accordingly, it is predicted that females will choose mates based on their ability to provide protection or will aggregate into large groups to dilute per capita harassment level. Conversely, increasing group size may also lead to a decrease in foraging activity by increasing foraging competition, but this effect has rarely been considered in mating tactic studies. This study examined the importance of two non-exclusive hypotheses in explaining the variations of the female activity budget during the breeding season: the male harassment hypothesis, and the female foraging competition hypothesis. We used focal observations of female activity from known mating groups collected during the breeding season from a long-term (15 years) study on reindeer Rangifer tarandus. We found that females were more disturbed (i.e., spent less time feeding) in the presence of young dominant males, and marginally disturbed in the presence of satellite males, which supports the male harassment hypothesis. We also found that female disturbance level increased with group size, being independent of the adult sex ratio. Consequently, these results rejected the dilution effect, but strongly supported the foraging competition hypothesis. This study therefore highlights a potential conflict in female behaviour. Indeed, any gains from harassment protection were negated by an increase of 6–7 females, since adult males lead larger groups than young males.
Starting Page	711
Ending Page	718
Page Count	8
File Format	PDF
ISSN	00298549
Journal	Oecologia
Volume Number	179
Issue Number	3
e-ISSN	14321939
Language	English
Publisher	Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Publisher Date	2015-07-19
Publisher Place	Berlin, Heidelberg
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Mating tactic Ungulate Group dynamics Reindeer Sexual selection Ecology Plant Sciences Hydrology/Water Resources
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

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1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
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