Tag: Reproduction

#StoryBehindThePaper, Guest post

How animals fuel their reproduction: a new approach

This blog post is provided by John Whiteman and tells the #StoryBehindThePaper for the article “Quantifying capital vs. income breeding: new promise with stable isotope measurements of individual amino acids“, which was recently published in the Journal of Animal Ecology. It is an intensive process to grow and support offspring – just ask anyone who has raised children. For wild animals, supporting rapidly-developing, new organisms creates many challenges, whether … Continue reading How animals fuel their reproduction: a new approach

Beth PrestonLeave a comment
Guest post

Lovers and fighters, and how their coexistence affects their evolution within an eco-evolutionary feedback loop

Eco-evolutionary dynamics are well studied but the term is applied to a wide variety of effects and interactions. Yet comparing these different types of studies on eco-evolutionary dynamics will inform on how this field can move forward, which is precisely the aim of a recent British Ecological Society cross-journal Special Feature. Here,  Isabel Smallegange (an Associate Professor of Population Biology at the University of Amsterdam) … Continue reading Lovers and fighters, and how their coexistence affects their evolution within an eco-evolutionary feedback loop

Sarah MarleyLeave a comment
Guest post

Live fast, don’t die young

Understanding the trade-offs between survival and reproduction is essential for the study of population dynamics. A recent paper in the Journal of Animal Ecology used a novel statistical framework to reveal previously unknown life-cycle trends for two sympatric bat species. Lead author Dr Antica Culina from the University of Oxford and Netherlands Institute of Ecology, explains the research. Survival and reproduction both require energy, which is generally … Continue reading Live fast, don’t die young

Sarah MarleyLeave a comment
Guest post

Aging in Eagles

For many species, breeding performance changes as an individual ages. So in order to properly monitor and manage animal populations, it is important to understand how different species age. But this is easier said than done! A recent paper published in the Journal of Animal Ecology used a unique dataset from a reintroduced population of white‐tailed eagles in Scotland to study age‐ and sex‐specific trends. Lead author … Continue reading Aging in Eagles

Sarah Marley1 Comment
Guest post

Strategic pauses in female elephant seals

A recent paper published in the Journal of Animal Ecology has found that poor-quality female southern elephant seals use breeding pauses as a tactic to produce more offspring over their lifetime.  Here to tell us more are three of the authors: Marine Desprez, Clive McMahon and Rob Harcourt. Breeding is a costly activity. In long-lived multiparous animals, some individuals may skip one or several breeding … Continue reading Strategic pauses in female elephant seals

Sarah MarleyLeave a comment