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Correlates of horn and antler shape in bovids and cervids

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Abstract

Using analyses that control for phylogeny, we examine whether the shapes of horns and antlers in ungulates are related to style of fighting, environmental factors, mating and social systems, or are simply arbitrary. Many of the predictions that relate horn shape to species' fighting tactics and to their mating and social systems are supported. Bovids with tips facing inwards are likely to wrestle with their horns, be monogamous and solitary, whereas those with tips facing out tend to be polygynous and live in large groups. Smooth horns are used for stabbing, and are found in females of polygynous species living in large groups. In female bovids, twisted horns are found in large species and are used in wrestling whereas, in male bovids, straight horns are found in solitary species. Finally, deer with more than five antler tines tend to be large and to fight by fencing. There was little support for shape of horns and antlers being related to environmental factors, nor were shapes arbitrary as might be expected if they had arisen through female choice. Body size had little effect on these results. In general, monogamous solitary bovids have straight inwardly facing horns whereas polygynous group-living species demonstrate a wide variety of horn shapes.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the McNair Scholars Program for supporting C.M.G., the University of California for supporting C.J.S., Janelle Vargas for help with coding variables, Sheila Montgomery for help with analysis of shape syndromes, and Joel Berger and two anonymous reviewers for comments. No experiments were involved in this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA

    T. M. Caro, C. M. Graham & C. J. Stoner

  2. Section of Evolution and Ecology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA

    M. M. Flores

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  1. T. M. Caro
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  2. C. M. Graham
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  3. C. J. Stoner
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  4. M. M. Flores
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Correspondence to T. M. Caro.

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Communicated by M. Elgar

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Appendix

Appendix

Data on shapes of horns and antlers and morphological, behavioral and ecological variables used in this study

M refers to males, F to females. In the body of the Appendix, 1 refers to presence, 0 to absence, ? to insufficient information, and a blank cell denotes not applicable (note neither sex in Hydropotes inermis has horns). In the column marked body size, only species included in our phylogenetic trees were used to calculate median body weights; other species are denoted by "a". L refers to greater than the median body weight for either cervids or bovids, S to less than the median body weight, M to the median itself.

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Caro, T.M., Graham, C.M., Stoner, C.J. et al. Correlates of horn and antler shape in bovids and cervids. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 55, 32–41 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-003-0672-6

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