Decreased food intake as a fecundity-dependent cost of reproduction in keelback snakes ( Tropidonophis mairii , Colubridae)
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The physical burden of pregnancy may render females slower and less able to evade predation, favouring a reduction in feeding in order to avoid a reduction in survivorship. Life-history theory predicts that an organism’s optimal level of investment into reproduction depends upon whether or not the associated ‘costs’ (such as a decrease in rate of feeding) increase with higher fecundity. Anorexia during pregnancy is widespread among snakes, but there are few field data on fecundity-dependence of such costs. Over a 23-year period, we recorded reproductive condition and feeding status (based on palpation and production of faeces) for 3778 captures of free-ranging female natricine colubrid snakes (keelbacks, Tropidonophis mairii ) in tropical Australia. Pregnancy reduced feeding rates, and that decrease was greatest for females with higher reproductive investment (clutch mass relative to maternal mass). Our long-term data provide the first clear-cut evidence of fecundity-dependent costs of reproduction in free-ranging snakes.
Source: Royal Society Open Science
DOI: 10.1098/rsos.241831
Authors: Gregory Paul Brown, Richard Shine
Institution: Macquarie University
Language: English
Subfield: Global and Planetary Change
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $1,471
Funder: Australian Research Council
OpenAlex ID: W4409260663