Asking the pikas politely…
Successful sexual reproduction requires both sexes to be reproductive at the same time. A variety of internal and external factors, such as climatic events, cue reproduction. Changes in climatic cues can cause reproductive phenology to shift, potentially affecting each sex differently and causing a phenological mismatch. Golden-mantled ground squirrels (GMGS; Callospermophilus lateralis) are a short-lived, hibernating species with a brief reproductive window. Female GMGS reproductive phenology is advancing with climate change, but changes in male reproductive phenology remain unknown. We used 29 years of male reproductive data from annual censuses to assess whether male reproductive phenology in GMGS is correlated with snowmelt. We found that snowmelt date is a significant predictor of reproductive status at both the individual and population level. We found that earlier snowmelt dates correlated with lower proportions of reproductive males, and later snowmelt dates correlated with higher proportions of reproductive males. These findings indicate that male reproductive phenology is responsive to climate cues, suggesting that male and female GMGS reproductive phenologies likely remain matched. However, more research is needed to determine the relative rates of their shifts to confirm there is no phenological mismatch between the sexes and to determine whether reproductive synchrony will be maintained in the long term as the climate continues to shift.
Items connected by shared entities, co-authorship, citations, or semantic similarity.