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- Title
Bacular and testicular growth and allometry in the ringed seal (Pusa hispida): evidence of polygyny?
- Authors
YURKOWSKI, DAVID J.; CHAMBELLANT, MAGALY; FERGUSON, STEVEN H.
- Abstract
We determined ringed seal (Pusa hispida) bacular and testicular growth relationships and made interspecific comparisons to species with better-known mating systems to elaborate on current hypotheses about the mating system of the ringed seal. We measured 161 bacula, 251 pairs of testes, and 55 mandibles collected from ringed seals of known age from Inuit subsistence harvests in Arviat and Sanikiluaq, Nunavut, Canada, from 2003 to 2006. Ringed seal bacular and testicular sizes were positively allometric relative to mandibular size for immature males (>7 years of age) but increased isometrically in mature males (≥ years of age), similar to relationships between bacular size and body length for known polygynous pinnipeds. Adult isometric growth contrasted with harp seals (Pagophilus groenlandicus), a promiscuous species, in which bacular size likely is sexually selected. Our results, combined with previously reported ecological and behavioral ringed seal characteristics, suggest that ringed seals display a polygynous mating system.
- Subjects
NUNAVUT; RINGED seal; GROWTH; ANIMAL sexual behavior; TESTIS; MANDIBLE; HARP seal; BACULUM (Anatomy)
- Publication
Journal of Mammalogy, 2011, Vol 92, Issue 4, p803
- ISSN
0022-2372
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1644/10-MAMM-A-082.1