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Fitness Benefits of a Motivated Mom

Sarah E. Westrick, Ryan W. Taylor, View ORCID ProfileStan Boutin, View ORCID ProfileJeffrey E. Lane, View ORCID ProfileAndrew G. McAdam, View ORCID ProfileBen Dantzer
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/594093
Sarah E. Westrick
1University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
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  • For correspondence: westse@umich.edu
Ryan W. Taylor
2End2End Genomics LLC, Davis, CA, USA
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Stan Boutin
3University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
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Jeffrey E. Lane
4University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada
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Andrew G. McAdam
5University of Guelph Guelph, ON, Canada
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Ben Dantzer
6University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
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Abstract

Parental investment theory predicts that observed levels of parental care afforded to offspring are set by the benefits (to offspring quality and survival), relative to the costs (to parental survival or future reproduction). Although difficult to document, there is often substantial individual-variation in the amount of parental care within species. We measured the impact of individual variation in maternal care on fitness in a wild population of North American red squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus). We used pup retrieval latency following a nest intrusion as a measure of maternal motivation to care for pups. Pups from large litters grew faster if they had a highly motivated mother, indicating that maternal motivation can mitigate the trade-off between litter size and offspring growth. Pups whose mothers who returned to the nest faster were more likely to survive to autumn, a critical life history stage. These results highlight important fitness impacts of having a highly motivated mother and show that maternal motivation can alter a fundamental life history trade-off between offspring quantity and quality.

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
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Posted March 31, 2019.
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Fitness Benefits of a Motivated Mom
Sarah E. Westrick, Ryan W. Taylor, Stan Boutin, Jeffrey E. Lane, Andrew G. McAdam, Ben Dantzer
bioRxiv 594093; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/594093
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Fitness Benefits of a Motivated Mom
Sarah E. Westrick, Ryan W. Taylor, Stan Boutin, Jeffrey E. Lane, Andrew G. McAdam, Ben Dantzer
bioRxiv 594093; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/594093

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