Data from: Sex-specific performances, trade-offs and trait repeatability across the lifetime of the world's largest semelparous mammal (Dasyurus hallucatus)

The activities that define survival and reproductive success in animals
depend on their physical performances. However, performance is a complex
trait, and organisms must balance competing demands of multiple underlying
factors every time they undertake an activity. For example, the morphology
that increases bite force (i.e., increased head size)—improving fighting
ability—should constrain sprinting performance by adding mass to the body.
Consequently, trade-offs between fighting and escape performance might be
sex-specific where sexual dimorphism is present, or pronounced in animals
with extreme breeding strategies. Northern quolls (Dasyurus hallucatus)
are a sexually dimorphic marsupial, with sex-specific life history
strategies; males die after a single synchronous breeding season, while
females live and breed for 2–3 years. We investigated the effects of sex
and life histories on whole-animal performance and assessed whether sprint
speed and bite force trade off among- or within-individual male and female
quolls. We used a repeated measures dataset spanning three years. We
identified significant sex differences in morphology and performance,
notably after breeding, where male sprint speed decreases but female bite
force increases. Both body size and body condition were strong predictors
of performance. However, we found no trade-off between sprint speed and
bite force, suggesting that ecologically relevant tasks for survival and
reproduction—fighting capacity and escape ability—may evolve independently
in both male and female northern quolls. Finally, we assessed the
repeatability of morphological and performance traits and demonstrated the
importance of study design when quantifying variance in animal
performance, especially for animals with complex life histories.