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Supersize me: heavy eastern grey kangaroo mothers have more sons

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Abstract

The Trivers-Willard hypothesis predicts that, in polygynous and sexually dimorphic mammals, mothers able to provide a large amount of care should produce more sons. Tests of this prediction, however, have generated equivocal results, possibly because multiple factors, including environmental conditions, simultaneously influence progeny sex ratio. We tested the influence of maternal mass, condition, size, previous reproduction and age class on offspring sex ratio in two populations of eastern grey kangaroos (Macropus giganteus). In one population, heavier and taller mothers produced more sons than did lighter mothers, but maternal condition had no effect on progeny sex ratio. Primiparous females, however, produced an even offspring sex ratio despite being smaller than multiparous females. A strong year effect on progeny sex ratio suggested a likely effect of environmental conditions. In the second population, none of the variables tested influenced progeny sex ratio. Different environmental conditions between the two populations could partly explain these results. Because maternal size and mass likely correlate with reproductive potential, we suggest that our results support the Trivers-Willard hypothesis, but other variables likely also influence progeny sex ratio.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the contribution of students and field assistants over the years, especially E. Rioux Paquette, W. King, U. Gélin, A. Mackay, T. Allen, M. Wilson, S. Garnick and J. Cripps. This research was supported financially by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Program, the Ministère de l’Éducation, du Loisir et du Sport of Québec (MELS), the Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment, Parks Victoria and the Université de Sherbrooke. We appreciate the logistic support of Parks Victoria and the Anglesea Golf Club.

Ethical standards

All procedures involving animals were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institution or practice at which the studies were conducted, as authorized by The University of Melbourne Animal Ethics Committee and by the Université de Sherbrooke Animal Care Committee, affiliated with the Canadian Council on Animal Care.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Département de biologie, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada, J1K 2R1

    Camille Le Gall-Payne & Marco Festa-Bianchet

  2. School of BioSciences, The University of Melbourne, Victoria, 3010, Australia

    Graeme Coulson & Marco Festa-Bianchet

Authors
  1. Camille Le Gall-Payne
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  2. Graeme Coulson
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  3. Marco Festa-Bianchet
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Correspondence to Marco Festa-Bianchet.

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Communicated by A. I. Schulte-Hostedde

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Le Gall-Payne, C., Coulson, G. & Festa-Bianchet, M. Supersize me: heavy eastern grey kangaroo mothers have more sons. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 69, 795–804 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-015-1896-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-015-1896-y

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