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Long‐term repeatability of body mass and resting metabolic rate in free‐living weasels, Mustela nivalis
Author(s) -
SZAFRAŃSKA P. A.,
ZUB K.,
KONARZEWSKI M.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
functional ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.272
H-Index - 154
eISSN - 1365-2435
pISSN - 0269-8463
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2435.2007.01273.x
Subject(s) - repeatability , biology , basal metabolic rate , intraclass correlation , zoology , ecology , metabolic rate , coefficient of variation , trait , statistics , endocrinology , mathematics , computer science , programming language , psychometrics
Summary1 The significant repeatability of a trait of interest is a vital condition for meaningful extrapolation of its value over long time periods, and any inference related to its response to environmental conditions. Surprisingly, although body mass and resting metabolic rate (RMR) are widely recognized as the two important traits affecting mammalian ecology and life history, very little is known about their repeatability in the wild. 2 Here we report long‐term repeatabilities of body mass and RMR, measured in summer and winter, in free‐living weasel males, Mustela nivalis L. Body mass was highly repeatable over extremely long periods (compared with weasels’ lifetime) of up to 400 days (intraclass correlation coefficient τ = 0·93, Pearson correlation r = 0·96). Its variation was independent of time and season. Repeatability of RMR (corrected for body mass and season) was also significant (τ = 0·63, r = 0·62) and independent of time scale. However, within seasons it was statistically significant in summer (τ = 0·55, r = 0·54) but not in winter (τ = 0·07, r = 0·25). 3 To our knowledge, this is the first study providing empirical support for long‐term repeatability of body mass and RMR in free‐ranging small mammals, and is consistent with a significant level of heritable variation of these two traits.