Reproduction is a notoriously costly phase of life, exposing individuals to injury, infectious disease, and energetic tradeoffs. The strength of these costs should be influenced by life history strategies, and in long-lived species, females may be selected to mitigate costs of reproduction because life span is such an important component of their reproductive success. Here we report evidence for two costs of reproduction that may influence survival in wild female baboons— injury risk and delayed wound healing. Based on 29 years of observations in the Amboseli ecosystem, Kenya, we found that wild female baboons experienced the highest risk of injury on days when they were most likely to be ovulating. In addition, lactating females healed from wounds more slowly than pregnant or cycling females, indicating a possible tradeoff between lactation and immune function. We also found variation in injury risk and wound healing with dominance rank and age: older and low-status females were more likely to be injured than younger or high-status females, and older females exhibited slower healing than younger females. Our results support the idea that wild non-human primates experience energetic and immune costs of reproduction, and they help illuminate life history tradeoffs in long-lived species.
InjuryHealing_toDryad
Data are healing rates for injuries observed in wild baboons and metadata for each injury, including age, ordinal dominance rank, proportional dominance rank, whether the injury occurred in a wild or garbage-feeding group, season, and group size. Injury healing data are reflected in the days to heal or be censored and whether the record is censored. Censored records are injuries that failed to heal by the final observation. The injuries in this study were observed between 1982 and 2011. They were not clinical diagnoses; instead, observations were collected non-invasively by watching the animals at a distance of a few meters. Whenever a baboon displayed signs of injury (e.g., limping, bleeding from a wound), observers used an established protocol and data sheet to record the type of injury and whether it impaired the animal's locomotion. See manuscript for more details.
Healing_rates_toDryad.xlsx
Female_MonthlyInjuryRisk_toDryad
Data are binomial incidences of injury for 18,256 female-months of observation. Data were collected from wild baboons in Amboseli National Park between 1982 and 2011. If a female was injured in a given month, the column 'injured?' records a 1, if no injury occurred, it lists a zero. Metadata are provided for each female-month, including the animal's identity, her age during the given year and month, her ordinal rank, her proportional rank, the season, whether her social group was fissioning, a log-transformed number of days she was present in the group, her reproductive state as cycling (C), pregnant (P), or lactating (L), and her group size. See manuscript for more information.
Periovulatory_DailyInjuryRisk_toDryad
Data are binomial incidences of injury for cycling female baboons on 179,001 female-days of observation. Data were collected from wild baboons in Amboseli National Park between 1982 and 2011. If a female was injured on a given day, the column 'injured?' lists a 1, if no injury occurred it lists a zero. Metadata are provided for each female-month, including the animal's identity, her age on that day, her ordinal rank, her proportional rank, the season, whether she was in the periovulatory phase, her group size, and the sex ratio in the group. See manuscript for more information.
periovulatory_DailyInjuryRisk_toDryad.xlsx