Data from: Flexibility in the duration of parental care: female leopards prioritise cub survival over reproductive output

1.Deciding when to terminate care of offspring is a key consideration for
parents. Prolonging care may increase fitness of current offspring, but it
can also reduce opportunities for future reproduction. Despite its
evolutionary importance, few studies have explored the optimal duration of
parental care, particularly among large carnivores. 2.We used a 40-year
dataset to assess the trade-offs associated with the length of maternal
care in leopards in the Sabi Sand Game Reserve, South Africa. We compared
the costs imposed by care on the survival and residual reproductive value
of leopard mothers against the benefits derived from maternal care in
terms of increased offspring survival, recruitment and reproduction. We
also examined the demographic and ecological factors affecting the
duration of care in light of five explanatory hypotheses: litter-size,
sex-allocation, resource-limitation, timing-of-independence, and
terminal-investment. 3.Duration of care exhibited by female leopards
varied markedly, from 9–35 months. Mothers did not appear to suffer any
short- or long-term survival costs from caring for cubs, but extending
care reduced the number of litters that mothers could produce during their
lifetimes. Interestingly, the duration of care did not appear to affect
the post-independence survival or reproductive success of offspring
(although it may have indirectly affected offspring survival by
influencing dispersal distance). However, results from generalised linear
mixed models showed that mothers prolonged care during periods of prey
scarcity, supporting the resource-limitation hypothesis. Female leopards
also cared for sons longer than daughters, in line with the sex-allocation
hypothesis. 4.Cub survival is an important determinant of the lifetime
reproductive success in leopards. By buffering offspring against
environmental perturbation without jeopardizing their own survivorship,
female leopards apparently ‘hedge their bets’ with current offspring
rather than gamble on future offspring which have a small probability of
surviving. 5.In many species, parents put their own needs before that of
their offspring. Leopard mothers appear sensitive to their
offspring's demands, and adjust levels of care accordingly.