Data from: High hunting pressure selects for earlier birth date: wild boar as a case study

Exploitation by humans affects the size and structure of populations. This has evolutionary and demographic consequences that have typically being studied independent of one another. We here applied a framework recently developed applying quantitative tools from population ecology and selection gradient analysis to quantify the selection on a quantitative trait - birth date - through its association with multiple fitness components. From the long-term monitoring (22 years) of a wild boar (Sus scrofa scrofa) population subject to markedly increasing hunting pressure, we found that birth dates have advanced by up to 12 days throughout the study period. During the period of low hunting pressure, there was no detectable selection. However, during the period of high hunting pressure, the selection gradient linking breeding probability in the first year of life to birth date was negative, supporting current life history theory predicting selection for early births to reproduce within the first year of life with increasing adult mortality.

人类狩猎活动会改变种群的规模与结构，由此产生的进化效应与种群统计学后果，以往通常被独立研究。本研究运用近期开发的分析框架，结合种群生态学与选择梯度分析（selection gradient analysis）的定量研究方法，通过出生日期与多种适合度组分（fitness components）的关联，量化针对数量性状（quantitative trait）——出生日期——的选择压力。通过对一个狩猎压力持续升高的野猪（Sus scrofa scrofa）种群开展长达22年的长期监测，我们发现整个研究周期内，种群的平均出生日期提前了最多12天。在狩猎压力较低的阶段，未检测到显著的选择作用；而在狩猎压力较高的阶段，将个体首年繁殖概率与出生日期相关联的选择梯度呈负值，这一结果支持了当前的生活史理论（life history theory）：该理论预测，随着成体死亡率上升，自然选择会青睐能够在首年内完成繁殖的早出生个体。