Presentation Details
| Horns of Her Own: Competition, Predation, and Female Weaponry in Bovids Theodore Stankowich1, Nicole Lopez1, 2. 1California State University Long Beach, Long Beach, California, USA.2University of Montana, Missoula, Montana, USA |
Abstract
Male weaponry is widely studied, yet female weaponry remains poorly understood. In Bovidae, males typically use horns in sexual contests, whereas females vary greatly in horn presence and size. Previous studies proposed that female horns function in intraspecific competition or antipredator defense, but rarely tested how socio-ecological factors shape female horn investment. We reassessed these drivers using family-level comparative analyses (N=115). Female territoriality, sociality, and body mass positively predicted horn presence. Among horned females (N=80), horn investment varied among tribes and increased with sociality, but did not scale with body mass; territorial and pair-bonded species tended to have shorter horns. Although male horn investment did not predict female horn presence, in species with horned females, female and male horn investment scaled positively. Our results indicate that female horn presence is primarily shaped by intraspecific competition in smaller species and predation risk in larger species, and we provide new evidence that social selection influences female weapon investment in mammals.
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No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author.
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