Search

Skip to main content Accessibility help

Home
Search

Only show content I have access to (0)

Chapters (1)

Over 3 years (1)

From year:

To year:

Apply

Life Sciences (1)

prime breeding age

Cambridge University Press (1)

View selected items
Save to my bookmarks
Export citations
Download PDF (zip)
Save to Kindle
Save to Dropbox
Save to Google Drive
Save content to
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to .

To save content items to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Please be advised that item(s) you selected are not available.
You are about to save
Your Kindle email address

Please provide your Kindle email.

@free.kindle.com @kindle.com (service fees apply)

By using this service, you agree that you will only keep content for personal use, and will not openly distribute them via Dropbox, Google Drive or other file sharing services

1 results

7 - Coito Ergo Sum
Bernard J. Le Boeuf, University of California, Santa Cruz
Book:

Elephant Seals

Published online:

23 September 2021

Print publication:

07 October 2021, pp 62-79
- Chapter
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation
Summary

The urge to mate explains virtually everything that males do during the breeding season. They threaten, chase, and fight to establish rank in a dominance hierarchy that gives access to females. One or a few of the highest-ranking males dominate mating; the alpha male may inseminate up to 100 females in a single breeding season or more than 200 females in life. Variation in lifetime reproductive success is extreme. Most males never mate because they die before reaching breeding age or they mature, reach old age, and are prevented from mating by the power structure. Males attempt to mate with pregnant females, nursing females, females giving birth, dead females, and newly weaned pups. Females departing the harem after weaning their pups are weak, having lost 40% of their mass; they are in danger from peripheral males attempting to mate with them, and some are inadvertently killed.