Data from: The influence of weather conditions during gestation on life histories in a wild Arctic ungulate

The internal predictive adaptive response (internal PAR) hypothesis
predicts that individuals born in poor conditions should start to
reproduce earlier if they are likely to have reduced performance in later
life. However, whether this is the case remains unexplored in wild
populations. Here, we use longitudinal data from a long-term study of
Svalbard reindeer to examine age-related changes in adult female
life-history responses to environmental conditions experienced in utero as
indexed by rain-on-snow (ROSutero). We show that females experiencing high
ROSutero had reduced reproductive success only from 7 years of age,
independent of early reproduction. These individuals were able to maintain
the same annual reproductive success between 2 and 6 years as
phenotypically superior conspecifics that experienced low ROSutero. Young
females born after high ROSutero engage in reproductive events at lower
body mass (about 2.5 kg less) than those born after low ROSutero. The mean
fitness of females that experienced poor environmental conditions in early
life was comparable with that of females exposed to good environmental
conditions in early life. These results are consistent with the idea of
internal PAR and suggest that the life-history responses to early-life
conditions can buffer the delayed effects of weather on population
dynamics.