Cargando…
Why Do African Elephants (Loxodonta africana) Simulate Oestrus? An Analysis of Longitudinal Data
Female African elephants signal oestrus via chemicals in their urine, but they also exhibit characteristic changes to their posture, gait and behaviour when sexually receptive. Free-ranging females visually signal receptivity by holding their heads and tails high, walking with an exaggerated gait, a...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2010
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2850927/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20383331 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0010052 |
_version_ | 1782179823915892736 |
---|---|
author | Bates, Lucy A. Handford, Rosie Lee, Phyllis C. Njiraini, Norah Poole, Joyce H. Sayialel, Katito Sayialel, Soila Moss, Cynthia J. Byrne, Richard W. |
author_facet | Bates, Lucy A. Handford, Rosie Lee, Phyllis C. Njiraini, Norah Poole, Joyce H. Sayialel, Katito Sayialel, Soila Moss, Cynthia J. Byrne, Richard W. |
author_sort | Bates, Lucy A. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Female African elephants signal oestrus via chemicals in their urine, but they also exhibit characteristic changes to their posture, gait and behaviour when sexually receptive. Free-ranging females visually signal receptivity by holding their heads and tails high, walking with an exaggerated gait, and displaying increased tactile behaviour towards males. Parous females occasionally exhibit these visual signals at times when they are thought not to be cycling and without attracting interest from musth males. Using demographic and behavioural records spanning a continuous 28-year period, we investigated the occurrence of this “simulated” oestrus behaviour. We show that parous females in the Amboseli elephant population do simulate receptive oestrus behaviours, and this false oestrus occurs disproportionately in the presence of naïve female kin who are observed coming into oestrus for the first time. We compare several alternative hypotheses for the occurrence of this simulation: 1) false oestrus has no functional purpose (e.g., it merely results from abnormal hormonal changes); 2) false oestrus increases the reproductive success of the simulating female, by inducing sexual receptivity; and 3) false oestrus increases the inclusive fitness of the simulating female, either by increasing the access of related females to suitable males, or by encouraging appropriate oestrus behaviours from female relatives who are not responding correctly to males. Although the observed data do not fully conform to the predictions of any of these hypotheses, we rule out the first two, and tentatively suggest that parous females most likely exhibit false oestrus behaviours in order to demonstrate to naïve relatives at whom to direct their behaviour. |
format | Text |
id | pubmed-2850927 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2010 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-28509272010-04-09 Why Do African Elephants (Loxodonta africana) Simulate Oestrus? An Analysis of Longitudinal Data Bates, Lucy A. Handford, Rosie Lee, Phyllis C. Njiraini, Norah Poole, Joyce H. Sayialel, Katito Sayialel, Soila Moss, Cynthia J. Byrne, Richard W. PLoS One Research Article Female African elephants signal oestrus via chemicals in their urine, but they also exhibit characteristic changes to their posture, gait and behaviour when sexually receptive. Free-ranging females visually signal receptivity by holding their heads and tails high, walking with an exaggerated gait, and displaying increased tactile behaviour towards males. Parous females occasionally exhibit these visual signals at times when they are thought not to be cycling and without attracting interest from musth males. Using demographic and behavioural records spanning a continuous 28-year period, we investigated the occurrence of this “simulated” oestrus behaviour. We show that parous females in the Amboseli elephant population do simulate receptive oestrus behaviours, and this false oestrus occurs disproportionately in the presence of naïve female kin who are observed coming into oestrus for the first time. We compare several alternative hypotheses for the occurrence of this simulation: 1) false oestrus has no functional purpose (e.g., it merely results from abnormal hormonal changes); 2) false oestrus increases the reproductive success of the simulating female, by inducing sexual receptivity; and 3) false oestrus increases the inclusive fitness of the simulating female, either by increasing the access of related females to suitable males, or by encouraging appropriate oestrus behaviours from female relatives who are not responding correctly to males. Although the observed data do not fully conform to the predictions of any of these hypotheses, we rule out the first two, and tentatively suggest that parous females most likely exhibit false oestrus behaviours in order to demonstrate to naïve relatives at whom to direct their behaviour. Public Library of Science 2010-04-07 /pmc/articles/PMC2850927/ /pubmed/20383331 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0010052 Text en Bates et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Bates, Lucy A. Handford, Rosie Lee, Phyllis C. Njiraini, Norah Poole, Joyce H. Sayialel, Katito Sayialel, Soila Moss, Cynthia J. Byrne, Richard W. Why Do African Elephants (Loxodonta africana) Simulate Oestrus? An Analysis of Longitudinal Data |
title | Why Do African Elephants (Loxodonta africana) Simulate Oestrus? An Analysis of Longitudinal Data |
title_full | Why Do African Elephants (Loxodonta africana) Simulate Oestrus? An Analysis of Longitudinal Data |
title_fullStr | Why Do African Elephants (Loxodonta africana) Simulate Oestrus? An Analysis of Longitudinal Data |
title_full_unstemmed | Why Do African Elephants (Loxodonta africana) Simulate Oestrus? An Analysis of Longitudinal Data |
title_short | Why Do African Elephants (Loxodonta africana) Simulate Oestrus? An Analysis of Longitudinal Data |
title_sort | why do african elephants (loxodonta africana) simulate oestrus? an analysis of longitudinal data |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2850927/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20383331 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0010052 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT bateslucya whydoafricanelephantsloxodontaafricanasimulateoestrusananalysisoflongitudinaldata AT handfordrosie whydoafricanelephantsloxodontaafricanasimulateoestrusananalysisoflongitudinaldata AT leephyllisc whydoafricanelephantsloxodontaafricanasimulateoestrusananalysisoflongitudinaldata AT njiraininorah whydoafricanelephantsloxodontaafricanasimulateoestrusananalysisoflongitudinaldata AT poolejoyceh whydoafricanelephantsloxodontaafricanasimulateoestrusananalysisoflongitudinaldata AT sayialelkatito whydoafricanelephantsloxodontaafricanasimulateoestrusananalysisoflongitudinaldata AT sayialelsoila whydoafricanelephantsloxodontaafricanasimulateoestrusananalysisoflongitudinaldata AT mosscynthiaj whydoafricanelephantsloxodontaafricanasimulateoestrusananalysisoflongitudinaldata AT byrnerichardw whydoafricanelephantsloxodontaafricanasimulateoestrusananalysisoflongitudinaldata |