Journal article
Offspring sex, current and previous reproduction affect feeding behaviour in wild eastern grey kangaroos
U Gélin, ME Wilson, GM Coulson, M Festa-Bianchet
Animal Behaviour | Published : 2013
Abstract
In mammals, lactation is the most energetically demanding component of female reproduction. Theory predicts an increase in food intake by lactating females, but very few studies have used contraceptives to experimentally test the influence of reproduction on foraging behaviour of wild mammals. From 2009 to 2011, we observed 182 individually marked female eastern grey kangaroos, Macropus giganteus, in two populations, including 29 that received an experimental contraceptive treatment. We sought to determine whether lactating females increase their foraging rate compared to contracepted and naturally nonlactating females. The proportion of time spent foraging during 10. min focal samples did n..
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Awarded by Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment
Funding Acknowledgements
We thank all students and volunteers who assisted with kangaroo captures, especially Jemma Cripps. Alecia Carter and one anonymous referee provided constructive reviews of a previous version of the manuscript. We acknowledge Julien Martin for statistical advice. The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Australian Research Council Linkage Project (LP0560344) and the Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment provided financial support.