Natural regulation of population size in large mammals by means of two new delayed density-dependent fertility mechanisms

It is generally assumed that population size of all wild animal species is regulated through density-dependent mechanisms, but the mechanisms responsible have been difficult to identify for elephants and large whales. We have used information on physiological reproductive mechanisms in humans in a stochastic computer simulation study to explore how known density-dependent fertility mechanisms in humans could regulate population size in a hypothetical large mammal species, assuming no deliberate interference with sexual or reproductive processes. Two physiological reproductive mechanisms in women are dependent on nutrition in utero or early life: age at menarche and post-partum amenorrhea during lactation and were included in the model. If large female mammals in general have physiological reproductive mechanisms similar to human females, strong density-dependence mechanisms will be the result, but with a substantial delay, 20 to 50 years. The model results are discussed in relation to what is known about populations of the Eastern North Pacific gray whales (Eschrichtius robustus), Antarctic minke whales (Balaenoptera bonaerensis) and elephants (Loxodonta africana) in Amboseli National Park, Kenya.

• Publication year

  2025

• Venue

  Scientific Reports

• Publication date

  2025-11-11

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1038/s41598-025-22992-2PMID 41219268PMCID 12606112
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Reconstructing the population dynamics of eastern Pacific gray whales over the past 150 to 400 years

  2023cited by this paper
• Decline in body condition in the Antarctic minke whale (Balaenoptera bonaerensis) in the Southern Ocean during the 1990s

  2021cited by this paper
• Breastfeeding and weaning in Late Holocene hunter-gatherers of the lower Paraná wetland, South America.

  2021cited by this paper
• Reconstructing breastfeeding and weaning practices in the Bronze Age Near East using stable nitrogen isotopes

  2019cited by this paper
• The reproductive advantages of a long life: longevity and senescence in wild female African elephants

  2016cited by this paper
• Comparative population dynamics of large and small mammals in the Northern Hemisphere: deterministic and stochastic forces

  2013cited by this paper
• Nursing mothers and feeding bottles: reconstructing breastfeeding and weaning patterns in Greek Byzantine populations (6th–15th centuries AD) using carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios

  2013cited by this paper
• Evidence for density-dependent changes in body condition and pregnancy rate of North Atlantic fin whales over four decades of varying environmental conditions

  2013cited by this paper
• Dating the late prehistoric dispersal of Polynesians to New Zealand using the commensal Pacific rat

  2008cited by this paper
• Infant feeding and weaning practices in Roman Egypt.

  2001cited by this paper
• Rapid extinction of the moas (Aves: Dinornithiformes): model, test, and implications.

  2000cited by this paper
• Lactation, nutrition, and postpartum amenorrhea in lowland Papua New Guinea.

  1996cited by this paper
• The Wellcome Foundation Lecture, 1994. The fetal origins of adult disease

  1995cited by this paper
• Suckling and lactational anoestrus in wild gorillas (Gorilla gorilla).

  1988cited by this paper
• Lactation and post-partum amenorrhoea: a study based on data from three Norwegian cities 1860–1964

  1988cited by this paper
• Infant mortality, childhood nutrition, and ischaemic heart disease in England and Wales.

  1986cited by this paper
• Lactation and birth spacing in highland New Guinea

  1985cited by this paper
• Demographic and endocrinological aspects of low natural fertility in highland New Guinea

  1985cited by this paper
• Social conditions and menarcheal age: the importance of early years of life.

  1982cited by this paper
• Density Dependence as Related to Life History Strategy

  1981cited by this paper
• Seals and Whales of the Southern Ocean

  1977cited by this paper
• Review lecture - The determinants of growth and form

  1974cited by this paper
• The determinants of growth and form.

  1974cited by this paper
• Menarchal Age in Norway: Halt in the Trend towards Earlier Maturation

  1973cited by this paper
• Some effects of exploitation on reproduction in whales.

  1973cited by this paper
• Supplement: the Balance of Animal Populations

  1933cited by this paper

• No citing papers are available for this paper.