Summary
Female mammals in good condition can maximize their inclusive fitness by investing more in male offspring than in female offspring during periods of poor environmental quality. To test this hypothesis, we measured the effects of undernutrition and crowding before and during gestation on the sex ratio and weight of offspring at parturition and at weaning in Mus domesticus. Sex ratio was not significantly affected by density. Dams altered the sex ratio of their offspring in response to food availability, but only if variance in competitive success within the experimental subpopulation was evident. Thus ad lib fed females produced litters with an unbiased sex ratio, competitively successful females under moderate food availability produced a male-biased sex ratio, and severely food deprived females produced litters with a female-biased sex ratio. In groups that experienced competition for food, successful dams favoured male offspring during lactation. These results are consistent with the predictions of Trivers and Willard (1973). Analysis of within-cell variance and covariance suggests that the interaction of social structure and food availability provides specific cues for the dams' tactical reproductive choices.
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Wright, S.L., Crawford, C.B. & Anderson, J.L. Allocation of reproductive effort in Mus domesticus: responses of offspring sex ratio and quality to social density and food availability. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 23, 357–365 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00303709
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00303709