Ecological cues, gestation length, and birth timing in African buffalo (Syncerus caffer)

Behavioral Ecology

Volumn 18, Issue 4, 2007, Pages 635-644

  Ryan, S J ^a,b   Knechtel, C U ^c   Getz, W M ^a,c  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA   (United States)

^b UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA   (United States)

^c UNIVERSITY OF PRETORIA   (South Africa)

Author keywords

Birth synchrony; Breeding ecology; NDVI; Phenology

Indexed keywords

ADAPTATION; ANNUAL VARIATION; BIRTH DATE; BODY CONDITION; ENVIRONMENTAL CUE; MAMMAL; NDVI; PARTURITION; PHENOLOGY; PHENOTYPIC PLASTICITY; PREGNANCY; PROTEIN;

BOVINAE; SYNCERUS CAFFER;

EID: 34547674872     PISSN: 10452249     EISSN: 14657279     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arm028     Document Type: Article

References (71)

1. Apps P. 2000. Smithers' mammals of Southern Africa, a field guide. Cape Town (South Africa): Struik Publishers. 364 p.
2. Bartiaux-Thill N, Oger R. 1986. The indirect estimation of the digestibility in cattle of herbage from Belgian permanent pasture. Grass Forage Sci. 41:269-272.
3. Bell HV. 1971. A grazing ecosystem in the Serengeti. Sci Am. 225:86-93.
4. Bertschinger HJ. 1996. Reproduction in the African buffalo: a review. Symposium on the African buffalo as a game ranch animal. In: Penzhorn BL, editor. Ondestepoort (South Africa): South African Veterinary Association. p. 62-74.
5. Bowyer RT, Van Ballenberghe V, Kie JG. 1998. Timing and synchrony of parturition in Alaskan moose: long-term versus proximal effects of climate. J Mammal. 79:1332-1344.
6. Brashares JS, Arcese P. 2002. Role of forage, habitat and predation in the behavioural plasticity of a small African antelope. J Anim Ecol. 71:626-638.
7. Bronikowski A, Webb C. 1996. Appendix: a critical examination of rainfall variability measures used in behavioral ecology studies. Behav Ecol Sociobiol. 39:27-30.
8. Brown RE. 1985. The primitive ungulates: orders Tubulidentata, Proboscidea and Hyracoidea. In: Brown RE, McDonald DW, editors. Social odours in mammals. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 235-244.
9. Buntjer JB, Otsen M, Nijman IJ, Kuiper MTR, Lenstra JA. 2002. Phylogeny of bovine species based on AFLP fingerprinting. Heredity. 88:46-51.
10. Clutton-Brock TH, Albon SD, Gibson RM, Guinness FE. 1979. Logical stag - adaptive aspects of fighting in red deer (Cervus-Elaphus L). Anim Behav. 27:211-225.
11. Clutton-Brock TH, Guinness FE, Albon SD. 1982. Red deer: behavior and ecology of two sexes. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
12. Environmental Systems Research Institute Inc. 2000a. ARC/INFO 8. 8.02 ed. Redlands (CA): ESRI.
13. Environmental Systems Research Institute Inc. 2000b. ArcGIS 8.3. Redlands (CA): ESRI.
14. Estes RD. 1976. The significance of breeding synchrony in the wildebeest. East Afr Wildl J. 14:135-152.
15. Estes RD. 1991. The behavior guide to Africa mammals: including hoofed mammals, carnivores, primates. London: University of California Press.
16. Estes RD. 1999. The safari companion, a guide to watching African mammals. White River Junction (VT): Chelsea Green Publishing Company.
17. Estes RD, Estes RK. 1979. The birth and survival of wildebeest calves. Z Tierpsychol. 50:45-95.
18. Fryxell JM. 1995. Aggregation and mitigation by grazing ungulates in relation to resources and predators. In: Sinclair ARE, Arcese P, editors. Serengeti II: dynamics, management and conservation of an ecosystem. Chicago (IL): Chicago University Press. p. 257-273.
19. Gaillard JM, Delorme D, Jullien JM. 1993. Effects of cohort, sex, and birth date on body development of roe deer (Capreolus-Capreolus) Fawns. Oecologia. 94:57-61.
20. Gaillard JM, Delorme D, Jullien JM, Tatin D. 1993. Timing and synchrony of births in roe deer. J Mammal. 74:738-744.
21. Gaillard JM, Festa-Bianchet M, Yoccoz NG. 1998. Population dynamics of large herbivores: variable recruitment with constant adult survival. Trends Ecol Evol. 13:58-63.
22. Garland T, Ives AR. 2000. Using the past to predict the present: confidence intervals for regression equations in phylogenetic comparative methods. Am Nat. 155:346-364.
23. Grant CC, Biggs HC, Meissner HH, Basson PA. 1996. The usefulness of faecal phosphorus and nitrogen in interpreting differences in live-mass gain and the response to P supplementation ingrazing cattle in arid regions. Onderstepoort J Vet Res. 63:121-126.
24. Grimsdell JJR. 1973. Reproduction in the African buffalo, Syncerus caffer, in Western Uganda. J Reprod Fertil Suppl. 19:303-318.
25. Halley DJ, Mari M. 2004. Dry season affiliation of African buffalo bulls at the Chobe riverfront, Botswana. S Afr J Wildl Res. 34:105-111.
26. Hobbs NT. 1987. Fecal indices to dietary quality: a critique. J Wildl Manag. 51:317-320.
27. Holechek JL, Vavra M, Arthur D. 1982. Relationships between performance, intake, diet nutritive quality and fecal nutritive quality of cattle on mountain range. J Range Manag. 35:741-744.
28. Keech MA, Bowyer RT, Ver Hoef JM, Boertje RD, Dale BW, Stephenson TR. 2000. Life-history consequences of maternal condition in Alaskan moose. J Wildl Manag. 64:450-462.
29. Kennish R. 1997. Seasonal patterns of food availability: influences on the reproductive output and body condition of the herbivorous crab Grapsus abolineatus. Oecologia. 109:209-218.
30. Kucera TE. 1997. Fecal indicators, diet, and population parameters in mule deer. J Wildl Manag. 61:550-560.
31. Lee PC. 1997. The meanings of weaning: growth, lactation and life history. Evol Anthropol. 5:87-96.
32. Leite ER, Stuth JW. 1990. Value of multiple fecal indices for predicting diet quality and intake of steers. J Range Manag. 43:139-143.
33. Leite ER, Stuth JW. 1995. Fecal NIRS equations to assess diet quality of free-ranging goats. Small Ruminant Res. 15:223-230.
34. Leslie DMJ, Starkey EE. 1985. Fecal indices to dietary quality of cervids in old-growth forests. J Wildl Manag. 49:142-146.
35. Lyons RK, Stuth JW. 1992. Fecal NIRS equations for predicting diet quality of free-ranging cattle. J Range Manag. 45:238-244.
36. Lyons RK, Stuth JW, Angerer JP. 1995. Technical note - fecal Nirs equation field validation. J Range Manag. 48:380-382.
37. Macandza VA, Owen-Smith N, Cross PC. 2004. Forage selection by African buffalo (Syncerus caffer) through the dry season in two landscapes of the Kruger National Park. S Afr J Wildl Res. 34:113-121.
38. Martin RD, Genoud M, Hemelrijk CK. 2005. Problems of allometric scaling analysis: examples from mammalian reproductive biology. J Exp Biol. 208:1731-1747.
39. Mills MG, Biggs HC, Whyte IJ. 1995. The relationship between rainfall, lion predation and population trends in African herbivores. Wildl Res. 22:75-88.
40. Mloszewski MJ. 1983. The behavior and ecology of the African buffalo. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
41. Myers P, Espinosa R, Parr CS, Jones T, Hammond GS, Dewey TA. 2006. The animal diversity [Internet]. Available at: http://animaldiversity. org. Accessed 19 Apr 2007.
42. Nunez-hernandez G, Holechek JL, Arthun D, Tembo A, Wallace JD, Galyean ML, Cardenas M, Valdez R. 1992. Evaluation of fecal indicators for assessing energy and nitrogen status of cattle and goats. J Range Manag. 45:143-147.
43. Ogutu JO, Owen-Smith N. 2003. ENSO, rainfall and temperature influences on extreme population declines among African savanna ungulates. Ecol Lett. 6:412-419.
44. Owen-Smith N. 1982. Factors influencing the consumption of plant products by large herbivores. In: Huntley BJ, Walker BH, editors. Ecology of tropical savannas. Berlin (Germany): Springer. p. 359-404.
45. Owen-Smith N, Cumming DHM. 1993. Comparative foraging strategies of grazing ungulates in African savannah grasslands. The XVII International Grasslands Congress, New Zealand Grasslands Association. Palmerston North, New Zealand. p. 691-697.
46. Owen-Smith N, Novellie P. 1982. What should a clever ungulate eat? Am Nat. 119:151-178.
47. Page RDM. 1996. TREEVIEW: an application to display phylogenetic trees on personal computers. Comp Appl Biosci. 12:357-358.
48. Pettorelli N, Vik JO, Mysterud A, Gaillard J-M, Tucker CJ, Stenseth NC. 2005. Using the satellite-derived NDVI to assess ecological responses to environmental change. Trends Ecol Evol. 20:503-510.
49. Pfeifer S. 1985. Flehmen and dominance among captive adult female scimitar-horned oryx (Oryx dammah). J Mammal. 66:160-163.
50. Pinzon J. 2002. Using HHT successfully to uncouple seasonal and interannual components in remotely sensed data. Orlando (FL): SCI 2002.
51. Pinzon J, Brown ME, Tucker CJ. 2004. Satellite time series correction of orbital drift artifacts using empirical node decomposition. Hilbert-Huang Transform: Introduction and Applications: Chapter 10, Part II.
52. Price SA, Bininda-Emonds ORP, Gittleman AL. 2005. A complete phylogeny of the whales, dolphins and even-toed hoofed mammals (Cetartiodactyla). Biol Rev. 80:445-473.
53. Prins HHT. 1996. Ecology and behaviour of the African buffalo: social inequality and decision making. New York: Chapman & Hall.
54. Rubenstein DR, Wikelski M. 2003. Seasonal changes in food quality: a proximate cue for reproductive timing in marine iguanas. Ecology. 84:3013-3023.
55. Rutberg AT. 1984. Birth synchrony in American bison (Bison bison) - response to predation or season. J Mammal. 65:418-423.
56. Rutberg AT. 1987. Adaptive hypotheses of birth synchrony in ruminants - an interspecific test. Am Nat. 130:692-710.
57. Ryan SJ. 2006. Spatial ecology of African buffalo (Syncerus caffer) and their resources in a savanna landscape [PhD thesis]. Berkeley (CA): University of California at Berkeley.
58. Ryan SJ, Knechtel CU, Getz WM. 2006. Range and habitat selection of African buffalo in South Africa. J Wildl Manag. 70:764-776.
59. SAS. 1989-2003. JMP version 5 (Academic), 5.1 ed. Cary (NC): SAS Institute Inc.
60. Scanlon TM, Caylor KK, Manfreda S, Levin SA, Rodriguez-Iturbe I. 2005. Dynamic response of grass cover to rainfall variability: implications for the function and persistence of savanna ecosystems. Adv Water Res. 28:291-302.
61. Sekulic R. 1978. Seasonality of reproduction in the sable antelope. East Afr Wildl J 16:177-182.
62. Sinclair ARE. 1977. The African buffalo: a study of resource limitation of populations. Chicago (IL): University of Chicago Press.
63. Sinclair ARE, Mduma SAR, Arcese P. 2000. What determines phenology and synchrony of ungulate breeding in Serengeti? Ecology. 81:2100-2111.
64. Skinner JD, Dott HM, Matthee A, Hunt L. 2006. Captive breeding of the white rhinoceros, Ceratotherium simum, and the Cape buffalo, Syncerus caffer. Onderstepoort J Vet Res. 73:237-239.
65. Testa JW. 2002. Does predation on neonates inherently select for earlier births? J Mammal. 83:699-706.
66. Tucker CJ, Pinzon JE, Brown ME, Slayback D, Pak EW, Mahoney R, Vermonte E, El Saleous N. 2005. An extended AVHRR 8-km NDVI dataset compatible with MODIS and SPOT vegetation NDVI data. Int J Remote Sens. 26:4485-4498.
67. Turner W. 2003. Activity patterns of male buffalo [masters dissertation]. Johannesburg (South Africa): University of Witwatersrand.
68. Turner WC, Jolles AE, Owen-Smith N. 2005. Alternating sexual segregation during the mating season by male African buffalo (Syncerus caffer). J Zoolog. 267:291-299.
69. Visscher DR, van Aarde RJ, Whyte I. 2004. Environmental and maternal correlates of foetal sex ratios in the African buffalo (Syncerus caffer) and savanna elephant (Loxodonta africana). J Zoolog. 264:111-116.
70. Wehausen JD. 1995. Fecal measures of diet quality in wild and domestic ruminants. J Wildl Manag. 59:816-823.
71. Wofford H, Holechek JL, Galyean ML, Wallace JD, Cardenas M. 1985. Evaluation of fecal indices to predict cattle diet quality. J Range Manag. 38:450-454.