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Behavioral Ecology Advance Access published online on July 30, 2008
Behavioral Ecology, doi:10.1093/beheco/arn092
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Sperm investment in male meadow voles is affected by the condition of the nearby male conspecifics

Ashlee A. Vaughna, Javier delBarco-Trillob and Michael H. Ferkina

a Department of Biology, University of Memphis, Ellington Hall, Memphis, TN 38152, USA b Department of Psychology, Cornell University, Uris Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853 USA

Address correspondence to A.A. Vaughn. E-mail: aavaughn{at}memphis.edu.


  Abstract

Sperm competition occurs when 2 or more males copulate with a particular female during the same reproductive cycle, and their sperm compete to fertilize the female's available eggs. One strategy that male voles use to assess the risk and intensity of sperm competition involves responding to the presence of scent marks of conspecific males found near a sexually receptive female. Previously, we have shown that if a male vole copulated with a female while he was in the presence of the odors of another male he increased his sperm investment relative to his investment if another male's odors were not present. The aim of the present study was to test the hypothesis that males assess differences in the relative quality of competing males and adjust their sperm investment accordingly. We did so by allowing males to copulate when they were exposed to the scent mark of a 24-h food-deprived male (low-quality male) or the scent mark of a male that was not food deprived (high-quality male). The data indicate that male meadow voles did not increase their sperm investment during copulation when exposed to the scent mark of a food-deprived male but did so when they were exposed to the scent mark of a male that was not food deprived. The results support the hypothesis that male voles are able to adjust sperm investment when they encounter the scent marks of males that differ in quality.

Key words: chemical signals, copulatory behavior, food deprivation, scent marking, sperm competition, voles.

Received 14 April 2008; revised 13 June 2008; accepted 19 June 2008.


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