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1.
Masayo Soma Mariko Hiraiwa-Hasegawa Kazuo Okanoya 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》2009,63(3):363-370
Birdsong differs from other sexual traits in that the acquisition process involves learning. Especially in close-ended learning
species like the Bengalese finch, conditions experienced during the critical song-learning period can have a profound influence
on song quality. Therefore, to understand song evolution from a life-history perspective, we investigated early ontogenetic
effects on song quality. In particular, we focused on maternal effects and sibling competition. In asynchronously hatching
bird species, the age hierarchy among nestlings affects physical development due to competition for food; mothers may influence
this competition by adjusting their investment in each egg according to its sequence in the laying order. To independently
assess these effects, chicks of the Bengalese finch were cross-fostered so that the age hierarchies formed in fostered broods
were independent of the laying order. Our results indicate that song quality partially reflects early ontogenetic conditions,
whereas song duration and note-type repertoire were independent of either laying order or age hierarchy. The syntactical complexity
of note order declined over the laying sequence. This finding suggests that the song learning ability is influenced by within-clutch
variation in maternal investment toward eggs. Considering that song syntactical complexity is subject to female preference
in the Bengalese finch, it is likely that maternal resource allocation strategies play a role in song evolution. 相似文献
2.
Hatching asynchrony in avian species leads to age and size differences between nestlings within a brood, handicapping last-hatched chicks in the sibling rivalry. Starvation due to this competitive disadvantage has been regarded as the primary cause of an increase in mortality with hatching order. However, for gulls it has also been suggested that disease is the cause of mortality for last-hatched chicks, possibly through reduced immunocompetence and thereby an enhanced susceptibility to infection. In addition, the male-biased mortality reported for several gull species may be related to a higher vulnerability to diseases in males compared to females. To determine the potential influence of the immune system on these mortality patterns, we investigated the T-cell-mediated immunity (CMI) of black-headed gull chicks in relation to hatching order and sex. We found a significant decrease in the CMI with hatching order. This result may be causally related to systematic changes in maternal yolk steroids and carotenoids within the laying sequence. For second-laid eggs, male CMI was significantly lower than female CMI. This is possibly linked to higher plasma levels of testosterone in male embryos which might have an immunosuppressive effect. If so, this effect is masked in eggs of either high (first egg) or low (last egg) quality. Chicks with low CMI showed enhanced mortality rates. Thus the differences in immune response are likely to contribute to the observed mortality patterns. However, hatching order significantly affected mortality independently of CMI, suggesting that competitive disadvantage due to hatching asynchrony is also important.Communicated by M. Webster 相似文献
3.
An organism’s pattern of development can have important long-term fitness effects. In species where the sexes differ in size
or other phenotypic traits, they may also have different optimal developmental rates. This influences both parental sex allocation
strategies and susceptibility of the sexes to early developmental conditions. However, sex differences in developmental rate
and vulnerability to environment during the embryonic period are not well understood. In birds, sibling competition and hatching
asynchrony may select for accelerated embryonic development of the last offspring in order to reduce their competitive disadvantage
after hatching. They may advance their hatching in response to vocal stimuli by the older siblings. It is, however, unclear
whether this flexibility in developmental rates is sex specific. In this study, we experimentally manipulated between-embryo
contact and tested whether this affected the pre-natal developmental rate and post-hatching performance of male and female
offspring from last-laid eggs in the herring gull. Post-hatching performance was measured both in competitive and non-competitive
situations. Among young incubated in isolation, males hatched faster than females, but both sexes fledged in similar, relatively
good condition. Among young incubated with normal between-embryo contact, hatching time did not differ between sexes, but
males fledged in poorer condition than females, regardless of whether they were reared singly or in a brood. These results
suggest that male and female offspring differ in their ability to mitigate the costs of hatching asynchrony. 相似文献
4.
Kapheim KM Bernal SP Smith AR Nonacs P Wcislo WT 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》2011,65(6):1179-1190
Developmental maternal effects are a potentially important source of phenotypic variation, but they can be difficult to distinguish
from other environmental factors. This is an important distinction within the context of social evolution, because if variation
in offspring helping behavior is due to maternal manipulation, social selection may act on maternal phenotypes, as well as
those of offspring. Factors correlated with social castes have been linked to variation in developmental nutrition, which
might provide opportunity for females to manipulate the social behavior of their offspring. Megalopta genalis is a mass-provisioning facultatively eusocial sweat bee for which production of males and females in social and solitary
nests is concurrent and asynchronous. Female offspring may become either gynes (reproductive dispersers) or workers (non-reproductive
helpers). We predicted that if maternal manipulation plays a role in M. genalis caste determination, investment in daughters should vary more than for sons. The mass and protein content of pollen stores
provided to female offspring varied significantly more than those of males, but volume and sugar content did not. Sugar content
varied more among female eggs in social nests than in solitary nests. Provisions were larger, with higher nutrient content,
for female eggs and in social nests. Adult females and males show different patterns of allometry, and their investment ratio
ranged from 1.23 to 1.69. Adult body weight varied more for females than males, possibly reflecting increased variation in
maternal investment in female offspring. These differences are consistent with a role for maternal manipulation in the social
plasticity observed in M. genalis. 相似文献
5.
János Török Rita Hargitai Gergely Hegyi Zoltán Matus Gábor Michl Péter Péczely Balázs Rosivall Gyula Tóth 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》2007,61(4):541-550
Birds may influence the fitness of their offspring by transmission of different amounts of carotenoids to their eggs. Carotenoids
play crucial roles in antioxidant protection and immune defence mechanisms, but they may be available to females in limiting
amounts. Therefore, their allocation to the eggs may be influenced by the female’s condition, age and environmental circumstances.
Furthermore, the quality of the male parent, which affects the reproductive value of the offspring, may also influence this
investment. In this correlational study, we investigated proximate and ultimate factors that may lead to variation in yolk
lutein, zeaxanthin and β-carotene concentrations among and within clutches of a wild passerine, the collared flycatcher (Ficedula albicollis). We found that carotenoid concentration was positively associated with caterpillar supply at the time of egg formation,
which suggests a proximate constraint of carotenoid availability on yolk composition. Neither female condition, body size,
age, nor male plumage ornamentation, age and body size correlated with carotenoid deposition. Yolk β-carotene concentration
was found to be positively linked to yolk testosterone concentration. We suggest that females allocated more β-carotene to
their eggs to mitigate the potentially detrimental effects of elevated steroid concentration. We found that concentration
of β-carotene increased with laying order. The possible function of this pattern may be to enhance the resistance to oxidative
stress and pathogens of the disadvantaged last-hatching nestling, suggesting that collared flycatchers pursue a compensatory,
“brood survival” strategy. 相似文献
6.
Adam Dušek Luděk Bartoš František Sedláček 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》2011,65(12):2209-2217
The issue of adaptive adjustment of offspring sex ratio (proportion of male births) in polytocous mammals, producing several
offspring per litter, is controversial because females of these species can maximize their fitness mainly by adjusting offspring
number. To address this issue, we examined the effect of maternal condition at mating, experimentally decreased by pre-mating
food restriction, on the sex ratio variation in 137 female mice. We tested two basic sex allocation hypotheses plausible for
polytocous mammals: (1) the Myers hypothesis, predicting that cheaper sex should be favored in poor environmental conditions
to maximize offspring number; and (2) the Williams hypothesis, predicting maximum fitness returns by adjusting size- and sex-specific
composition of the litter according to the maternal condition. The food-restricted mothers produced larger litters with a
higher proportion of cheaper daughters than the control mothers. By contrast, the control mothers optimized size and sex composition
of the litter according to their weight at mating. In addition, the offspring of the food-restricted mothers suffered less
from pre-weaning mortality than those of the control mothers. Therefore, when comparing the groups, the Myers hypothesis had
a general significance while the Williams hypothesis was plausible only for the control mothers. Furthermore, some of the
food-restricted mothers partly coped with the pre-mating food restriction and increased the proportion of sons in the litter
with the increasing maternal weight loss (during the period of food restriction). The sex ratio variation was thus a result
of three sex allocation strategies depending on the maternal condition at mating. 相似文献
7.
In some bird species, mothers can advantage the offspring of one sex either by elevating them in the laying order to promote earlier hatching or by allocating greater resources to eggs of the preferred sex. In size dimorphic species, the predictions as to which sex should benefit most from such pre-laying adjustments are ambiguous. The smaller sex would benefit from an initial size advantage to help compensate for the faster growth rate of the larger sex. However, an early advantage to offspring of the larger sex might have a greater effect on their lifetime reproductive success than an equivalent advantage to offspring of the smaller sex. We investigated these hypotheses in the polygynous brown songlark, Cinclorhamphus cruralis, which is one of the most sexually size dimorphic birds known. We conducted within-clutch comparisons and found that females hatched from larger eggs and were initially heavier (but not structurally larger) than their brothers. This may afford females an early competitive advantage, as egg volume remained correlated with chick mass until at least 5 days of age. Similarly, we found that hatch order was still positively associated with nestling mass and size when the brood was 10 days of age, but there was no clear relationship between offspring sex and hatching order. During this study, food was plentiful and there were few obvious cases of nestling starvation. When food is limited, we suggest that the greater nutrient reserves of female hatchlings could not only help compensate for their slower growth, but could also give them a survival advantage over their brothers early in the nestling period. Consequently, egg size dimorphism may be an adaptation that facilitates an early shift in brood sex-ratio towards cheaper daughters in conditions of low food availability. 相似文献
8.
Adeline Loyau Michel Saint Jalme Robert Mauget Gabriele Sorci 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》2007,61(7):1043-1052
According to the differential investment hypothesis, females paired with attractive mates are expected to invest more in the
current reproduction relative to females paired with unattractive males. We experimentally tested this hypothesis in the peafowl
(Pavo cristatus) by providing females with males that differed in sexual attractiveness. In agreement with the differential allocation hypothesis,
females paired with more ornamented males laid larger eggs, and deposited higher amounts of testosterone into the egg yolk,
independently of the sex of the embryo. These results show that the association between paternal phenotype and offspring quality
could arise via a differential maternal investment. They also suggest that, if ornamented males do transmit good genes to
the progeny, the maternal differential investment can amplify the effect of such good genes on the offspring fitness. 相似文献
9.
Offspring should be selected to influence maternal effort to maximize their own fitness, whereas mothers are selected to limit
investment in present progeny. In mammals, this leads to a conflict over the amount of milk provided and the timing of weaning.
The intensity and time course of such conflict has so far mostly been investigated experimentally in altricial rodents. However,
it is expected that offspring options for conflict will depend on developmental state. We therefore investigated in the highly
precocial domestic guinea pig (Cavia aperea f. porcellus) who decides over nursing performance and weaning and how pup state influences these decisions. Specifically, we tested whether
a threshold mass of pups predicts weaning time. By exchanging older litters against neonates and vice versa, we produced a
situation in which females differed in lactational stage from the cross-fostered pups. Our results indicate that females decide
about the timing of weaning, as cross-fostered younger pups were weaned at a much younger age than controls and older pups
benefited from continuing lactation of foster mothers. Growth rates did not differ in the treatment groups, and different
weaning ages resulted in differing weaning mass refuting the hypothesis that weaning is based on a threshold mass of offspring.
This constitutes clear evidence that in a precocial rodent, the guinea pig, decisions about maternal care are primarily determined
by maternal state and little influenced by pup state despite the extreme precociality of offspring. We suggest that precocial
pups show little resistance to early weaning when food is abundant, as they reach sufficient nutritional independence by the
middle of lactation to enable independent survival. 相似文献
10.
We studied sex-dependent mass growth of chicks of the monomorphic common tern Sterna hirundo which fledged at a colony site in Wilhelmshaven, Germany, between 1997 and 1999. Brood size, brood mates' sex and hatching order (a-, b- and c-chicks) were known for many individuals, which were sexed by molecular techniques. Daily growth rates and age of fledging were independent of sex. However, in all years male chicks reached higher peak mass and fledged up to 5.2% heavier than female chicks. Broods with at least two fledglings showed that besides sex, brood size interacting with sex composition affected chick mass. In mixed broods, brothers had higher peak and pre-fledging mass than sisters they were reared with. Especially in the combination a-daughter and b-son the brothers were heavier. Lowest mass was found in broods with three nest mates of the same sex. A detailed study of 24 three-fledgling broods showed that male c-chicks were heavier than their siblings. The results reveal an advantage for chicks in mixed broods, especially for sons, and more especially if the son was a c-chick. Higher mass and possibly dominance of sons in c-position might be related to higher maternal androgen levels, which are known to increase with each egg laid. The results suggest that even in a monomorphic species, sons might be more expensive to rear, and are discussed with respect to sibling competition, parental effort, survival of sons, as well as to fitness benefits favoring parents producing sons. 相似文献
11.
In avian species, maternal provisioning to the eggs is predicted to be more valuable for the offspring under adverse environmental conditions and intense sibling competition. However, studies manipulating both the amount of maternal pre-hatching resources and the harshness of post-hatching environment have seldom been performed to date. In this experimental study of Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) nestlings, we tested the consequences of a reduction in the albumen content of the eggs for fitness-related offspring traits, while performing an unbalanced partial cross-fostering soon after hatching, either increasing or decreasing brood size by one nestling. By molecular sexing of the chicks, we additionally tested for sex-specific sensitivity of individual nestlings to experimental treatments and to sex ratio variation in nestmates. We predicted that chicks hatching from albumen-deprived eggs should suffer more than control chicks from the harsher rearing conditions of enlarged broods. However, although albumen removal depressed chick body mass, chicks hatching from control eggs did not fare better than those hatching from eggs with reduced albumen content in enlarged vs. reduced broods. Albumen removal had sex-specific effects on immunity, with males, but not females, hatching from eggs with reduced albumen content showing a lower T-cell-mediated immune response than controls, suggesting that the two sexes were differentially susceptible to resource deprivation during early ontogeny. In addition, both immune response and chick body mass at age 7 days, when maximum growth rate is attained, declined with an increasing proportion of male nestmates. The effect of brood size manipulation on chick body mass at age 12 days, when peak body mass is attained, was also found to depend on brood sex composition, in that an increase in the proportion of male nestmates depressed offspring body mass in reduced broods, while the reverse was true in enlarged broods. On the whole, these findings suggest that sex differences may exist in environmental sensitivity and patterns of resource allocation among different body functions, and that brood size variation and sex composition may affect offspring fitness-related traits. 相似文献
12.
The maternal–embryo relationship was determined for the piked spurdog (Squalus megalops). In addition, the increase in offspring size with maternal size was studied and the embryonic development was described. Wet weight of in utero eggs and offspring size was correlated with maternal size; larger females produced larger embryos which would have higher survival rate and reproductive value. All embryos present in a female were at a similar stage of development. The external yolk sac is reabsorbed late in gestation, suggesting that embryos are mostly nourished by yolk sac reserves. Embryo size-at-birth varied considerably (180–244 mm total length) as a result of the significant variability in ova size at ovulation. The amounts of water, organic and inorganic matter of embryos at different stages of development were measured to determine possible maternal contributions during embryonic development. Total wet weight from smallest and largest in utero eggs to smallest and largest term embryos changed by +46 and +58%, respectively. This pattern was due to a change in water content by +137 and +154%, and inorganic matter by +100 and +156%. Organic matter of smallest and largest in utero eggs changed by −23 and −17%, respectively. The uterus of pregnant females became specialised for water and mineral transport, not nutrient provision. These results indicate that S. megalops is a strict yolk-sac viviparous species with no maternal contribution of organic matter during development. 相似文献
13.
When eggs hatch asynchronously, offspring arising from last-hatched eggs often exhibit a competitive disadvantage compared
with their older, larger nestmates. Strong sibling competition might result in a pattern of resource allocation favoring larger
nestlings, but active food allocation towards smaller offspring may compensate for the negative effects of asynchronous hatching.
We examined patterns of resource allocation by green-rumped parrotlet parents to small and large broods under control and
food-supplemented conditions. There was no difference between parents and among brood sizes in visit rate or number of feeds
delivered, although females spent marginally more time in the nest than males. Both male and female parents preferentially
fed offspring that had a higher begging effort than the remainder of the brood. Mean begging levels did not differ between
small and large broods, but smaller offspring begged more than their older nestmates in large broods. Male parents fed small
offspring less often in both brood sizes. Female parents fed offspring evenly in small broods, while in large broods they
fed smaller offspring more frequently, with the exception of the very last hatched individual. These data suggest male parrotlets
exhibit a feeding preference for larger offspring—possibly arising from the outcome of sibling competition—but that females
practice active food allocation, particularly in larger brood sizes. These differential patterns of resource allocation between
the sexes are consistent with other studies of parrots and may reflect some level of female compensation for the limitations
imposed on smaller offspring by hatching asynchrony. 相似文献
14.
Halictine bees exhibit a wide range of social behaviour that varies both inter- and intraspecifically. Although previous studies
suggested that the intraspecific variation might be attributed to temperature differences, there was no direct evidence to
detect the relationships between temperature and socialities. Lasioglossum (Evylaeus) baleicum exhibited solitary behaviour in a cooler locality (Kawakita) because of the shorter breeding season; in a warmer locality
(Nishioka Park), however, this bee species exhibited eusociality at sunny site and solitary behaviour at shady site, whereas
a molecular phylogeny confirms that all of these colonies are evidently conspecific. Therefore, we examined the effect of
degree-day accumulation on the sympatric social variation of L. baleicum by rearing the bees to calculate the threshold temperature. Whereas they showed high mortality, the threshold temperature
was estimated to be 10.33°C and the expected degree-day accumulation was 340 degree days. When we use this value of a degree-day
accumulation to estimate the expected eclosion date, the estimated dates were always consistent with observed eclosion dates.
In any sites where the bees were solitary, the degree-day accumulation was not enough for the second eclosion by the end of
the bee-active season. In Nishioka Park, sex ratio of the first brood was female biased, and daughters were smaller than mothers;
in Kawakita, however, there was no sex bias, and daughters were as large as their mothers indicating that the foundresses
seem to produce gyne-sized females in Kawakita but worker-sized females in Nishioka though these females do not become workers
at shady site. 相似文献
15.
Edward M. Sykes Tabitha M. Innocent Ido Pen David M. Shuker Stuart A. West 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》2007,61(11):1751-1758
Sex allocation theory offers excellent opportunities for testing how animals adjust their behaviour in response to environmental
conditions. A major focus has been on instances of local mate competition (LMC), where female-biased broods are produced to
maximise mating opportunities for sons. However, the predictions of LMC theory can be altered if there is both local competition
for resources during development and an asymmetry between the competitive abilities of the sexes, as has been seen in animals
ranging from wasps to birds. In this paper, we test the extent to which asymmetric larval competition alters the predictions
of LMC theory in the parasitoid wasp Nasonia vitripennis. We found that the body size of both sexes was negatively correlated with the number of offspring developing within the host.
Further, we found that when faced with high levels of competition, the body size of females, but not males, was influenced
by the sex ratio of the competing offspring; females were smaller when a higher proportion of the brood was female. This asymmetric
competition should favour less biased sex ratios than are predicted by standard LMC theory. We then develop a theoretical
model that can be parameterised with our data, allowing us to determine the quantitative consequences of the observed level
of asymmetric larval competition for sex allocation. We found that although asymmetric competition selects for less biased
sex ratios, this effect is negligible compared to LMC. Furthermore, a similar conclusion is reached when we re-analyse existing
data from another parasitoid species where asymmetric larval competition has been observed; Bracon hebetor. Consequently, we suspect that asymmetric larval competition will have its greatest influence on sex ratio evolution in species
that have smaller clutches and where local mate competition is not an issue, such as birds and mammals. 相似文献
16.
Environmental salinity is important in defining Brachionus plicatilis sibling species distributions. However, while salinity influences distributions, sibling species often co-exist. Three different mechanisms potentially account for the partial co-occurrence of sibling species: (1) siblings have differing salinity tolerances that partially overlap; (2) siblings physiological tolerances may be commonly broad, but relatively small differences in tolerances differentiate distributions via interactions e.g. competition; or (3) siblings distributions may be influenced by physical factors other than salinity. Here, we assess the extent of salinity tolerance in three B. plicatilis sibling species (B. plicatilis 6TUR, B. plicatilis IOM and B. rotundiformis 6TOS) by measuring population growth rate (μ, day−1) and egg development time in response to salinity (5–60‰) and salinity fluctuations (≤ Δ40‰). Sibling species were identified by analysis of the mitochondrial COI gene, and salinity responses were compared by regression analysis. Responses differed significantly between siblings, although the broad trends were similar. Positive growth occurred at all salinities, and highest growth rates ranged between 0.93 and 1.08 day−1 at 16–18‰. Rapid changes in salinity reduced growth rates, but net mortality occurred only in one treatment (100% mortality on transfer from 10 to 40‰). Egg development time was largely invariant with salinity except for B. plicatilis IOM and where rotifers were transferred from 30 to 60‰. We indicate that several siblings are similarly euryhaline and tolerate salinity fluctuations. Undoubtedly, wide tolerances in B. plicatilis are adaptations to ephemeral and seasonally variable habitats. Given common broad salinity tolerances, it is unlikely that the differential distributions of sibling species are a direct result of physiological constraints. Instead, we illustrate using a simple model that subtle differences in physiological tolerances may have important impacts on interactions between sibling species, which may in turn influence distributions. 相似文献
17.
Bettina Mahler Viviana A. Confalonieri Irby J. Lovette Juan C. Reboreda 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》2008,62(7):1193-1199
For avian brood parasites in which individual females are host-specialists, the arms race between hosts and parasites has
favored egg color polymorphism in the parasite, with female lineages laying mimetic eggs that resemble those of the host species
they parasitize. Female sex-linked inheritance of egg color fosters evolutionary stability of egg polymorphism if female lineages
show both consistent eggshell color and host use. This co-evolutionary relationship is unlikely to occur if individual brood
parasites use different hosts or if egg color is not maternally inherited. The shiny cowbird (Molothrus bonariensis) is an extreme generalist brood parasite that shows a very high degree of egg polymorphism. We tested whether egg spotting
in this species has female sex-linked inheritance. If genetic factors controlling the expression of egg spotting were present
on the female-specific W chromosome, we expected co-segregation between spotting patterns and mtDNA haplotypes, as both W
and mtDNA are maternally inherited. In contrast to the known maternal inheritance of spotting patterns in great tits, we found
no associations between eggshell spotting and mtDNA haplotypes, which suggests that eggshell spotting is not maternally inherited
in this cowbird species. 相似文献
18.
Molting and breeding entail major energetic costs for female crustaceans. However, females of some hermit crabs perform a
molt immediately prior to copulation (prenuptial molt). The evolutionary significance of the prenuptial molt was examined
in Pagurus hermit crabs, and two hypotheses were tested: (1) prenuptial molt might enhance the success of the present clutch by cleaning
the pleopods of females and thereby preventing eggs from being dislodged from the pleopods, and (2) prenuptial molt might
function for growth and increase future fecundity at the cost of energetic expenditure on the present brood. Although these
hypotheses are not mutually exclusive, our results rejected the former hypothesis and supported the latter hypothesis. All
four Pagurus species examined showed significant negative relationships between prenuptial molting and continuity of breeding; i.e., they
showed high molting frequency after they had a long rest period from breeding. Females of P. minutus increased their size through the prenuptial molt, and showed a decreased clutch size due to the molt. The number of dislodged
eggs increased if females molted in P. minutus. These results suggest that hermit crabs undergoing a prenuptial molt might not gain any clear immediate advantage of enhanced
survival of eggs in the present clutch, and that the prenuptial molt would mainly contribute to growth. 相似文献
19.
Structure and complexity of the substrate are important habitat characteristics for benthic epifauna. The specific growth and mortality rates and inducible defence characters on medium-sized blue mussels (Mytilus edulis L.) exposed to shore crabs (Carcinus maenas L.) were examined on three different substrate types in combined field and laboratory experiments. The experiments showed that complexity of the substrate increased blue mussel survival significantly, through a decrease in predation pressure. However, increased intraspecific competition for food on the complex substrate resulted in significantly lower growth rates of the mussels. Inducible defence characters were also influenced by substrate type. Blue mussels were more affected by predators on the structurally simple substrate, where they developed thicker shells and a larger posterior adductor muscle. 相似文献
20.
The aim of this study was to examine the effects of litter size and parity on sibling competition, piglet survival, and weight
gain. It was predicted that competition for teats would increase with increasing litter size, resulting in a higher mortality
due to maternal infanticide (i.e., crushing) and starvation, thus keeping the number of surviving piglets constant. We predicted
negative effects on weight gain with increasing litter size. Based on maternal investment theory, we also predicted that piglet
mortality would be higher for litters born late in a sow's life and thus that the number of surviving piglets would be higher
in early litters. As predicted, piglet mortality increased with increasing litter size both due to an increased proportion
of crushed piglets, where most of them failed in the teat competition, and due to starvation caused by increased sibling competition,
resulting in a constant number of survivors. Piglet weight at day 1 and growth until weaning also declined with increasing
litter size. Sows in parity four had higher piglet mortality due to starvation, but the number of surviving piglets was not
affected by parity. In conclusion, piglet mortality caused by maternal crushing of piglets, many of which had no teat success,
and starvation caused by sibling competition, increased with increasing litter size for most sow parities. The constant number
of surviving piglets at the time of weaning suggests that 10 to 11 piglets could be close to the upper limit that the domestic
sow is capable of taking care of. 相似文献