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Reproductive performance of a tropical apex predator in an unpredictable habitat

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Abstract

Variation in life history traits is directly linked to individual fitness. This interplay is complicated by environmental perturbations in an unpredictable habitat. To maximise fitness, individuals react to environmental changes by reallocating resources between maintenance, growth and reproduction. Disentangling these factors is complicated as traits are interlinked by trade-offs between current reproduction and future survival and reproduction. This study provides first estimates of life history traits and trade-offs of a tropical apex predator, the Galapagos sea lion (Zalophus wollebaeki), in an unpredictable habitat, the Galapagos archipelago. Thirteen years of individual data on birth mass, early growth and offspring, and environmental data allowed the examination of factors influencing reproductive performance of adult females and calculation of pupping rates. Females became primiparous between ages 4 and 9. Neither oceanographic nor body condition in the females’ first year of life influenced age at primiparity. Age at primiparity had no effect on a female’s birth rate, on average one pup every 2 years. Sex of a pup did not influence the subsequent inter-birth interval, but first-year pup survival lengthened it. Until age 6, females showed lower birth rate (< 0.40). Fecundity was higher between age 6 and 14 (birth rate 0.40–0.48). We could not detect an influence of inter-annually differing oceanographic conditions on pupping rates. Female Galapagos sea lions appear to deal with variation in early-life history traits and environmental unpredictability by a low but stable reproductive output modified only by the trade-off between current and future reproduction.

Significance statement

Life history traits and trade-offs have been examined in many species in temperate regions and in seasonal but predictable tropical habitats. However, they have rarely been investigated in long-lived species in tropical but unpredictable habitats, where the interplay between life history traits, individual fitness and population demography may be more complex. Our long-term dataset for Galapagos sea lion females, a tropical apex predator, shows that the trade-off between current and future reproduction figures prominently in their life history. However, they produce a low, but stable reproductive output largely unaffected by variation in early life history traits and largely independent of environmental unpredictability.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the Galapagos National Park for the permits to conduct this study and the Charles Darwin Research Station for providing the sea surface temperature data and continuous logistical support. Birte Müller, Paolo Piedrahita, Ulrich Pörschmann and Jochen B. W. Wolf and excellent field assistants, too numerous to name them all, were vital for the success of our study. We also thank Prof. M. Festa-Bianchet and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier manuscripts.

Funding

The study was supported by the Volkswagen-Stiftung (2003–2004), the Friends of the Galapagos (Switzerland) (2005) and the German Research Foundation (DFG; TR 105/18-1 and 18-2; 2006–2014; KR 2089/10-1; 2015–2018). This publication is contribution number 2201 of the Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galapagos Islands.

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  1. Animal Behaviour, University of Bielefeld, Morgenbreede 45, 33615, Bielefeld, Germany

    Stephanie Kalberer, Fritz Trillmich & Oliver Krüger

  2. Mammalian Behaviour and Evolution, Institute of Integrative Biology, University of Liverpool, Leahurst Campus, Chester High Road, Neston, CH64 7TE, UK

    Kristine Meise

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The study presented here complies with the laws of Ecuador and was licensed by the Galápagos National Park Service.

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Communicated by S. D. Twiss

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Kalberer, S., Meise, K., Trillmich, F. et al. Reproductive performance of a tropical apex predator in an unpredictable habitat. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 72, 108 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-018-2521-7

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