Mother traits and offspring sex in two threatened gazelle species in captivity

Since threatened species are generally incapable of surviving in their natural environments, ex situ conservation programs are required to preserve them from total extinction. Captive breeding provides the tool to rear sustained populations. Knowledge about biology of such species is critical for managing such breeding programmes. In this paper we look at the sex variation in calves surviving to 30 days in captive populations of two endangered polygynous gazelles, Gazella cuvieri and Gazella dama mhorr. We examined which of the following mother traits may affect sex allocation: her age, experience and inbreeding coefficient. Because twins are quite common in Cuvier's gazelle, we also analyze whether offspring sex is mediated by litter size in this gazelle. In both species the overall sex ratio did not differ from unity at the age of 30 days. These results support the suggestion that for a given population to be in equilibrium, a 1:1 calf sex ratio is to be expected, with females in good condition producing sons and females in poor condition producing daughters. We also found that offspring sex is not significantly related to the same mother traits in the two gazelles studied. Cuvier's gazelle findings showed that only maternal inbreeding influenced offspring sex, the less inbred the mother the higher the probability of producing sons. In contrast, none of the maternal traits studied were related to offspring sex in Mohor gazelle. Two non exclusive explanations are given to justify differences observed between these two species; one relate to a probable differential cost of producing either sex; the other refers to the actual homozygosis level in captive populations of each species. For Cuvier's gazelle litter size has no effect on offspring sex when the sex of the littermate is taken into account. This result fit predictions derived from Trivers-Willard model: mother in good conditions (less inbred) produce the sex with higher fitness returns (i.e., male), no matter if born at single or twins brood. Many variables are likely to affect progeny sex ratio. We have presently examined only a few. But our results might be of interest in management decisions and conservation programs such as reintroductionsThis work has been partially supported by project CGL 2008-00562/BOS of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, and by the European Regional Development Fund. B.I. was supported by a CSIC predoc grant.Peer reviewe