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It has recently been recognised that populations are rarely in demographic equilibrium, but rather in a 'transient' state. To examine how transient dynamics influence our empirical understanding of the links between changes in demographic rates and population growth, we conducted a 32-year study of Columbian ground squirrels. The population increased rapidly for 10 years, followed by a 2-year crash, and a gradual 19-year recovery. Transient life table response experiment (LTRE) analysis showed that demographic stochasticity accounted for approximately one-fourth of the variation in population growth, leaving the majority to be explained by environmental influences. These relatively small rodents appeared to have a slow pace of life. But unlike the general pattern for large mammals with slow life histories, ground squirrel survival did not exhibit low variation associated with environmental 'buffering'; instead, survival varied substantially over time and contributed substantially (78%) to changes in abundance over the long-term study, with minor contributions from reproduction and unstable stage structure., (© 2024 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Parasites affect many aspects of host physiology and behavior, and thus are generally thought to negatively impact host fitness. However, changes in form of short-term parasite effects on host physiological markers have generally been overlooked in favor of fitness measures. Here, we studied flea ( Oropsylla idahoensis and Oropsylla opisocroistis tuberculata ) parasitism on a natural population of Columbian ground squirrels ( Urocitellus columbianus ) in Sheep River Provincial Park, AB, Canada. Fleas were experimentally added to adult female U. columbianus at physiologically demanding times, including birth, lactation and weaning of their young. The body mass of adult females, as well as their oxidative stress and immunity were recorded multiple times over the active season under flea-augmented and control conditions. We also measured the prevalence of an internal parasite ( Trypanosoma otospermophili ). Doubly labeled water (DLW) was intra-peritoneally injected at peak lactation to examine energy expenditure. Effects of parasites on oxidative stress were only observed after offspring were weaned. There was no direct effect of experimentally heightened flea prevalence on energy use. A short-term 24 h mass loss (-17 g) was detected briefly after parasite addition, likely due to U. columbianus preferentially allocating time for grooming. Our parasite augmentation did not strongly affect hosts and suggested that short-term physiological effects were unlikely to culminate in long-term fitness consequences. Columbian ground squirrels appear to rapidly manage parasite costs, probably through grooming., Competing Interests: Competing interestsThe authors declare no competing or financial interests., (© 2019. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.)

The social environment has potent effects on individual phenotype and fitness in group-living species. We asked whether the presence of kin might act on energy allocation, a central aspect of life-history variation. Using a 22-year data set on reproductive and somatic allocations in Columbian ground squirrels (Urocitellus columbianus), we tested the effects of co-breeding and non-breeding kin on the fitness and energy allocation balance between reproduction and personal body condition of individual females. Greater numbers of co-breeding kin had a positive effect on the number of offspring weaned, through the mechanism of altering energy allocation patterns. On average, females with higher numbers of co-breeding kin did not increase energy income but biased energy allocation towards reproduction. Co-breeding female kin ground squirrels maintain close nest burrows, likely providing a social buffer against territorial invasions from non-kin ground squirrels. Lower aggressiveness, lower risks of infanticide from female kin and greater protection of territorial boundaries may allow individual females to derive net fitness benefits via their energy allocation strategies. We demonstrated the importance of kin effects on a fundamental life-history trade-off., (© 2016 The Authors. Journal of Animal Ecology © 2016 British Ecological Society.)

Parasites play an important role in the evolution of host traits via natural selection, coevolution and sexually selected ornaments used in mate choice. These evolutionary scenarios assume fitness costs for hosts. To test this assumption, we conducted an ectoparasite removal experiment in free-living Columbian ground squirrels (Urocittelus columbianus) in four populations over three years. Adult females were randomly chosen to be either experimentally treated with anti-parasite treatments (spot-on solution and flea powder, N = 61) or a sham treatment (control, N = 44). We expected that experimental females would show better body condition, increased reproductive success and enhanced survival. Contrary to our expectations, body mass was not significantly different between treatments at mating, birth of litter or weaning of young. Further, neither number nor size of young at weaning differed significantly between the two treatments. Survival to the next spring for adult females and juveniles was not significantly different between experimental and control treatments. Finally, annual fitness was not affected by the treatments. We concluded that females and their offspring were able compensate for the presence of ectoparasites, suggesting little or no fitness costs of parasites for females in the different colonies and during the years of our experiments., (© 2015 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.)

The most commonly reported ecological effects of climate change are shifts in phenologies, in particular of warmer spring temperatures leading to earlier timing of key events. Among animals, however, these reports have been heavily biased towards avian phenologies, whereas we still know comparatively little about other seasonal adaptations, such as mammalian hibernation. Here we show a significant delay (0.47 days per year, over a 20-year period) in the hibernation emergence date of adult females in a wild population of Columbian ground squirrels in Alberta, Canada. This finding was related to the climatic conditions at our study location: owing to within-individual phenotypic plasticity, females emerged later during years of lower spring temperature and delayed snowmelt. Although there has not been a significant annual trend in spring temperature, the date of snowmelt has become progressively later owing to an increasing prevalence of late-season snowstorms. Importantly, years of later emergence were also associated with decreased individual fitness. There has consequently been a decline in mean fitness (that is, population growth rate) across the past two decades. Our results show that plastic responses to climate change may be driven by climatic trends other than increasing temperature, and may be associated with declines in individual fitness and, hence, population viability.

The life history schedules of wild organisms have long attracted scientific interest, and, in light of ongoing climate change, an understanding of their genetic and environmental underpinnings is increasingly becoming of applied concern. We used a multi-generation pedigree and detailed phenotypic records, spanning 18 years, to estimate the quantitative genetic influences on the timing of hibernation emergence in a wild population of Columbian ground squirrels (Urocitellus columbianus). Emergence date was significantly heritable [h(2) = 0.22 ± 0.05 (in females) and 0.34 ± 0.14 (in males)], and there was a positive genetic correlation (r(G) = 0.76 ± 0.22) between male and female emergence dates. In adult females, the heritabilities of body mass at emergence and oestrous date were h(2) = 0.23 ± 0.09 and h(2) = 0.18 ± 0.12, respectively. The date of hibernation emergence has been hypothesized to have evolved so as to synchronize subsequent reproduction with upcoming peaks in vegetation abundance. In support of this hypothesis, although levels of phenotypic variance in emergence date were higher than oestrous date, there was a highly significant genetic correlation between the two (r(G) = 0.98 ± 0.01). Hibernation is a prominent feature in the annual cycle of many small mammals, but our understanding of its influences lags behind that for phenological traits in many other taxa. Our results provide the first insight into its quantitative genetic influences and thus help contribute to a more general understanding of its evolutionary significance., (© 2011 The Authors. Journal of Evolutionary Biology © 2011 European Society For Evolutionary Biology.)

Since W. D. Hamilton's seminal work on the evolution of sociality, a large body of research has accumulated on how kin selection might explain the evolution of cooperation in many group-living species. Our study examined the evolutionary basis of philopatry and cooperation; specifically, whether individuals benefit from the presence of close kin. We applied an individual fitness approach to a 16-year study of Columbian ground squirrels (Urocitellus columbianus) to investigate potential causal paths by which the presence of kin might act on individual fitness. Our results indicate that individual fitness benefits resulted from associations of philopatric female kin, and support the hypothesis that increased tolerance of proximity of kin is a proximate mechanism for these benefits. The major life-history influence of kin on individual fitness was through improved reproductive success, and this benefit may have been owing to philopatric settlement of kin that were recognized through familiarization in the natal burrow. Thus, we demonstrated an evolutionary basis necessary for ongoing kin-selected cooperation in Columbian ground squirrels, though the mechanism of familiarity may determine which kin individuals benefit from cooperative behaviours.

The dynamics of an age-structured population in a fluctuating environment is determined by the stochastic individual contributions from annual survival and fecundity to the total reproductive value of the population the next year. All parameters required to describe the population dynamics are simple properties of the distribution of these individual demographic contributions, which we call individual reproductive value. The asymptotic population growth rate in the average environment and the demographic and environmental variances are respectively the mean individual reproductive value over individuals through time and the variance within and between years. Our approach leads to an intuitive understanding of demographic and environmental variances in age-structured populations and their decomposition into additive age-specific components due to survival and reproduction. We show how to apply this approach to estimate the demographic and environmental variances and their components. The estimates are based on yearly random samples of individual vital rates and require no information about the total population size.

We studied litter size variation in a population of Richardson's ground squirrels (Spermophilus richardsonii) in Alberta, Canada, from 1987 to 2004. Litter size at first emergence of juveniles from the natal burrow ranged from 1 to 14; the most common litter sizes, collectively accounting for 41.0% of 999 litters, were 6 and 7. The number of offspring surviving to adulthood (attained on emergence from hibernation as yearlings) increased with increasing litter size, a result that was not predicted by Lack's "optimal litter size" hypothesis, Mountford's "cliff-edge" effect, or the "bad-years" effect. Contrary to the negative effects predicted by the "cost of reproduction" hypothesis, litter size had no significant influence on survival of mothers to the subsequent year or on the size of the subsequent litter. Rather, our results best fit the predictions of the "individual optimization" hypothesis, which suggests that litter size is determined by the body condition and environmental circumstances of each mother. Supporting this hypothesis, survival of individual offspring was not significantly associated with litter size. Additionally, year-to-year changes in maternal body mass at mating were positively associated with concurrent changes in litter size (r = 0.56), suggesting that litter size depends on the body condition of the mother. Because the mean number of recruits to adulthood increased as litter size increased (r2 = 0.96) and litter size increased with maternal condition, offspring productivity was greater for mothers in better body condition.