Maternal body condition predicts neonate body condition in a slow-lived, capital breeding pitviper, Crotalus adamanteus

Gray, Emily R.1 

emily.gray@marshall.edu

Carissa Adams1, Stacey Leonatti Wilkinson2, Mary Cate Miller2, Will Wilkinson2, Sarah Ebert1, Casey Hitchens1, John Holloway3, Shane M. Welch1, Jayme L. Waldron1

1Deparment of Biological Sciences, Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia, USA. 2Avian and Exotic Animal Hospital of Georgia, 118 Pipemakers Circle STE 110, Pooler, GA 31322, USA. 3Environmental Division— Natural Resources Branch, Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, South Carolina, USA.

Body size can indicate resilience to size-dependent selection (e.g., predation), particularly among neonates. Previous work has suggested that maternal investment and tradeoffs between offspring size and number can modulate neonatal size. We examined eastern diamondback rattlesnake (Crotalus adamanteus; EDB) neonate (n = 93) size relationships at a coastal sea island in South Carolina. We used correlation analyses to examine relationships between neonate mass and snout-vent-length (SVL), as well as litter-averaged neonate mass and litter size. We used a linear mixed model to evaluate effects of maternal body condition, sex, and post birth stage (i.e., pre- or post-natal shed) on neonate body condition (nBC). As expected, nBC was positively associated with maternal body condition and not associated with sex. We also found that body condition decreased following the post-natal shed. Neonate mass and SVL were correlated, but litter-averaged neonate mass was not associated with litter size. Our study provides support for the prediction that females with greater capital (e.g., muscle and fat) can invest greater resources into offspring size and suggests that a linear offspring size/number tradeoff is not predictive of neonate mass in EDBs.