TY - JOUR T1 - Sex-specific body mass ageing trajectories in adult Asian elephants JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/2020.12.17.423208 SP - 2020.12.17.423208 AU - Lucas D. Lalande AU - Virpi Lummaa AU - Htoo H. Aung AU - Win Htut AU - U. Kyaw Nyein AU - VĂ©rane Berger AU - Michael Briga Y1 - 2021/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/02/22/2020.12.17.423208.abstract N2 - Sex-specific life-histories are thought to shape sex-specific ageing patterns. In species with marked sexual dimorphism and where one sex undergoes stronger intrasexual competition, that sex is expected to age earlier or quicker. Here, we utilise a unique, longitudinal dataset of a semi-captive population of Asian elephants (Elephas maximus), a species with marked male-biased intrasexual competition, with males being larger and living shorter, and test the hypothesis that males show earlier and/or faster body mass ageing than females. We show sex-specific ageing trajectories: adult males gained weight up to the age of 48 years old, followed by a decrease in body mass until natural death. In contrast, adult females gained body mass with age until a body mass decline in the last year of life. Our study shows that sex-specific life-histories shape ageing patterns consistent with the predictions of the classical theory of ageing.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest. ER -