Variation in annual and lifetime reproductive success of lance-tailed manakins: alpha experience mitigates effects of senescence on siring success

The causes of variation in individual reproductive success over a lifetime are not well understood. In long-lived vertebrates, reproductive output usually increases during early adulthood, but it is difficult to disentangle the roles of development and learning on this gain of reproductive success. Lekking lance-tailed manakins provide an opportunity to separate these processes, as the vast majority of male reproduction occurs after a bird obtains alpha status and maintains a display area in the lek, but the age at which males achieve alpha status varies widely. Using 11 years of longitudinal data on age, social status and genetic siring success, I assessed the factors influencing variation in siring success by individuals over their lifetimes. The data show increases in annual reproductive success with both age and alpha experience. At advanced ages, these gains were offset by senescence in fecundity. Individual ontogeny, rather than compositional change of the population, generated a nonlinear relationship of breeding tenure with lifetime success; age of assuming alpha status was unrelated to tenure as a breeder, or success in the alpha role. Importantly, these findings suggest that social experience can mitigate the negative effects of senescence in older breeders.