Maternal influence on juvenile growth rates in Belding's ground squirrel (Spermophilus beldingi)

Abstract

The influence of food acquisition by pregnant and lactating Belding's ground squirrels (Spermophilus beldingi) on the body mass and growth rate of their offspring was assessed in a free-ranging population. In late spring and early summer of 1985 and 1986, individual females in a population of Belding's ground squirrels in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California were given 300–500 g of sunflower seeds daily at the entrances to their burrows. Juveniles born to mothers who received supplemental food emerged from natal burrows on average 28% heavier than did controls (73.0 vs. 57.1 g, P < 0.001) and maintained a greater body mass throughout the remainder of the summer (P < 0.01). Also, females had a nonsignificant tendency towards greater survivorship during their first winter (P = 0.09). Supplemental feeding had no effect on litter size or sex ratio of offspring, or on the mass of the mothers up to the time of weaning, indicating that extra food available in the spring to reproductive females is converted primarily, if not exclusively, into larger offspring. Because the lengths of gestation and lactation are relatively invariable, the greater body mass of emerging juveniles must result from faster growth prior to weaning.