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Female age‐specific reproductive rates, birth seasonality, and infant mortality of ring‐tailed Lemurs on St. Catherines Island: 17‐year reproductive history of a free‐ranging colony
Author(s) -
Parga Joyce A.,
Lessnau Robert G.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
zoo biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.5
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 1098-2361
pISSN - 0733-3188
DOI - 10.1002/zoo.20062
Subject(s) - lemur catta , biology , lemur , fecundity , demography , population , survivorship curve , zoology , ecology , primate , sociology
To compare reproductive parameters of a managed population of free‐ranging provisioned ring‐tailed lemurs ( Lemur catta ) to wild L. catta populations, we analyzed birth and mortality records collected over the 17‐year history of the St. Catherines Island ring‐tailed lemur colony. The majority of births in this colony (approximately 80%) occurred in March, which indicates that most females at this site conceived during the first estrus cycle of the breeding season, as do wild ring‐tailed lemur females (Sauther [1991] Am J Phys Anthropol 84:463–77). Females in this provisioned colony reach the age at first parturition (primiparous age) earlier (at 2 years) than do wild ring‐tailed lemurs, which typically begin to reproduce at 3 years of age (Sussman [1991] Am J Primatol 84:43–58; Koyama et al. [2001] Primates 42:1–14; Gould et al. [2003] Am J Phys Anthropol 120:182–94). Female fecundity is lowest at 2 years of age (34%), but increases to 67–100% for females age 3 and older. Survival analyses showed that infant survivorship for very young (2–3 years) and very old females (>10 years) are similar, and are lower than that for reproductively prime‐aged females (4–9 years), although this trend is not statistically significant (χ 2 =3.18, df =2, n =125, P =0.203). There was a large amount of variability in infant survival rates among the oldest females, and a few older females (ages 13 and 14) still had high infant survival rates despite their old age. When compared to wild populations, provisioning in this island colony generally caused a decrease in the female primiparous age, a decrease in infant mortality, and an increase in multiple‐offspring births (twins or triplets). Zoo Biol 0:1–15, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.