Citation

Ji T, Zhang B, Sun Y, Tao Y. J. Theor. Biol. 2009; 256(4): 637-643.

Affiliation

Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, PR China.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jtbi.2008.10.009

PMID

19013181

Abstract

A negative relationship between reproductive effort and survival is consistent with life-history. Evolutionary dynamics and evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS) for the trade-off between survival and reproduction are investigated using a simple model with two phenotypes, fearfulness and boldness. The dynamical stability of the pure strategy model and analysis of ESS conditions reveal that: (i) the simple coexistence of fearfulness and boldness is impossible; (ii) a small population size is favorable to fearfulness, but a large population size is favorable to boldness, i.e., neither fearfulness, nor boldness is always favored by natural selection; and (iii) the dynamics of population density is crucial for a proper understanding of the strategy dynamics.

Language: en