Life-history trade-offs and reproductive strategies in Tasmanian devils following disease-induced population decline

Abstract

Life-history trade-offs can mediate population declines following perturbations, and early reproduction should be favoured when adult survival is impacted more than juvenile survival. In Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii), following the emergence of a transmissible cancer that caused steep population declines, females started to breed precocially (i.e. at age 1 instead of 2 years old). Here, using 18 years of mark-recapture data from a site where the disease was present (Freycinet Peninsula, Tasmania, Australia), we tested whether: (i) the probability of 1-yea-old females breeding continued to increase over time; (ii) there was a relationship between body size and breeding success for either 1-year-old or adult females; and (iii) there was inbreeding depression in breeding success for either age category. We show that the probability of 1-year-old females breeding did not increase between 2003 and 2021, and that the proportion of precocially breeding females remains at around 40%. We also show that there was no effect of skeletal body size on the probability of breeding, but heavier females were always more likely to breed. Finally, we found no evidence for inbreeding depression in breeding success. We discuss our results in the context of possible constraints by way of limitations to growth in the offspring of precocially breeding females.