Figure 1.
Date of matings according to female age, male age and male dominance rank.
Female age (left), male age (right, black squares, left y-scale), male dominance rank (right, grey squares, right y-scale; mean±SE per year) in relation to the rut date. Lower values of dominance indicate higher-ranking males (e.g. number 1 is the top-ranked male). Younger females and males mated later in the rut than older females and males, and lower-ranking males mated later in the rut than higher-ranking ones (see Results for details).
Table 1.
Relationship between the mating date and female age, male age and male dominance rank.
Figure 2.
Temporal distribution of matings during the rut.
Total number of matings and number of older females, older males, high-ranking males (above), yearling females, young males and lower-ranking males (below) mating on each day of the rut (mean±SE matings per year). Yearling females mated from the 22/10 until the 04/11, with a peak on 29/10 (grey line). Older females mated from the 14/10 until the 01/11 with a peak on the 25/10 (black line). The timing of matings by young males coincided with the peak of yearling female matings, whereas the timing of matings of older, high- and lower-ranking males coincided with the peak of older females mating (see Results for details).
Figure 3.
Effect of the age of mating females on the age and dominance ranks of their mates.
Female age as a function of male age (black, left y-scale, quadratic relationship) and male dominance rank (grey, right y-scale, log-relationship; mean±SE). Lower values of dominance rank indicate higher-ranking males. Young and old females mated with younger males than middle-age females. Young females also mated with lower-ranking males than older females (see Results for details).
Figure 4.
Effect of the age and dominance rank of mating males on the age of their mates.
Female age as a function of male age (left) and male dominance rank (right; mean±SE female age). Lower values of dominance rank indicate higher-ranking males. Younger males and lower-ranking males mated with younger females than older and more dominant males (very weak effect: age, R2 = 0.08; rank, R2 = 0.07).