Date Published:
October 17, 2014
Source:
Behavioral Ecology: International Society for Behavioral Ecology
Summary: This
article illustrates how reproductive success is directly correlated to
interactions amongst other fetuses as well as offsprings and other
social and ecological factors. Essentially, reproductive success or fitness is
classified by how many offsprings an organism can have and of those offsprings
how many actually survive and create a new generation. The article highlights
that many studies solely focus on either the pre natal stages or the post natal
stages of an organism however its imperative to understand that it they are
both intertwined and interdependent.
One of the major factors that are well
known is the effect climate has on the survival of offsprings. When there is
plentiful rainfall, the result is higher plant productivity, which then
increases food availability. This is important when considering the health of
the mother but also each of the offsprings since they will have lots of food
available and there isn’t competition in regards to food. When thinking of the
social aspect, this article shows that though females may have a certain amount
of conflict and competition amongst each other, there is safety in numbers.
Living with other females that have offsprings allows there to be more
resources and more protection. This again increases the chances of survival.
These are only a few basic examples of ecological and social factors
influencing the fitness of a species.
The main idea of this study was to
research and ecological and social factors that were prevalent in pre and
postnatal offsprings which lead to the survival of macaques located in
Sulawesi. The reason why this specie was chosen for this experiment is because
they have an evident percent of infant mortality and there low predation
pressure. Also this specie gives birth year rounds so the data flow would be
constant. The experiment was conducted where the climate stay relatively
constant through out the year. The rainfall was above average for this specie
to survive. They tested their predictions with three groups over the span of
152 months.
The results that were collected conclude
that social variables explain the survival rate because the more encounters the
fetuses were involved in, the more likely they were to survive. This was
unexpected because the prediction was that more encounters would encourage
competition and add stress to the female decreasing the survival rate. The
study did support the hypothesis that the environment also plays a role
especially when talking about rainfall. Rainfalls lead to a greater among of
fruits available, which lead to a healthier diet for both mother and
offsprings. It was also noted that if the mother was presented, their offsprings
would be more likely to survive because females were more aggressive in their
means of protection. From this study, it can be summarized that ecological and
social factors due influence fitness seen through the macaques species.
Citation:
Daphne Kerhoas,
Dyah Perwitasari-Farajallah,
Muhammad Agil,
Anja Widdig and
Antje Engelhardt, Behavioral Ecology (2014) 25 (5): 1164-1172 doi:10.1093/beheco/arue099
Citation:
Based on what you've given us, this study seems to be very intriguing. Your introduction and summary of results are great. However, I would like to know more about the methodology and actual experiments conducted so we can get a better understanding of what the results mean in terms of the research done.
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