Interpopulational variation in reproductive costs may affect variation in life history traits including reproductive investment (i.e. clutch mass relative to either maternal body mass or length). While the relationships between reproductive investment and costs of reproduction, especially costs to mobility, have been well studied in squamate reptiles, how these costs relate to investment and explain patterns within and between populations is not always straightforward. In the present study, we examined the relationship between reproductive investment and costs of reproduction (gravid and postpartum sprint speeds and maternal postpartum body condition) in two populations of a viviparous skink, Pseudemoia entrecasteauxii living in different habitat types. We found that costs of reproduction (i.e. impact on gravid and postpartum sprint speeds) depended on the interaction between relative reproductive burden (RRB) and population. There was no link between relative clutch mass (RCM) and maternal sprint speeds. Maternal postpartum body condition was not related to either RRB or RCM for either population. Gravid females living in the open habitat population showed significantly slower sprint speed compared with the same females immediately postparturition, and other gravid females living in a closed habitat population. Such females are likely to experience a higher cost of reproduction in terms of changes in sprint speed as well as exposure to predators and may show a behavioural shift to crypsis in order to compensate for locomotor impairment and to reduce the risk of predation. We suggest that factors which relate to costs of reproduction (i.e. sprint speeds) are complex and may involve multiple factors such as reproductive investment and habitat characteristics.
History
Publication title
Ethology Ecology and Evolution
Volume
24
Issue
4
Pagination
367-376
ISSN
0394-9370
Department/School
School of Natural Sciences
Publisher
Taylor & Francis Ltd.
Place of publication
4 Park Sq, Milton Park, Oxfordshire OX144RN, UK
Rights statement
Copyright 2012 Dipartimento di Biologia Evoluzionistica dell’Università, Firenze, Italia