Age-specific reproduction and survival of individually marked Wood Thrushes, Hylocichla mustelina

Several nonexclusive, sometimes contradictory, hypotheses have been employed to explain age-related changes in reproduction and survival among vertebrates. We evaluated these hypotheses with observations collected from a 31-year study of individually marked Wood Thrushes (Hylocichla mustelina). Age-specific fledgling production, survival probabilities, and derived life table columns are presented here. Additionally, we report genetic value,'' or the number of young remaining to be recruited into the breeding population by individuals of age x. Controlling for age of mate, the presence of some individuals in multiple years, and the effect of year of breeding, reproduction and survival peaked in middle-aged birds of each sex and declined later in life for the oldest individuals. We could not exclude the selection hypothesis (removal of inferior individuals) as an explanation for improved female reproduction until middle age. The age at last reproduction was a significant determinant of age-related reproductive success, indicating a disappearance of low-quality individuals. Yearling females that did not successfully reproduce had greater within-season emigration than all other age classes of each sex, regardless of the reproductive success of other classes. For males, we favored the constraint hypothesis (improved reproduction with experience) to explain greater reproductive output with increasing age until at least middle age. For each sex, the age of the mate independently influenced all measures of reproductive performance, but there was generally a linear or quadratic, rather than interactive, effect of the mate's age on reproduction. For both sexes, hypotheses of age-related reproduction were only partially supported because of effects of senescence, or a decline in reproductive output or survival probabilities with increasing age. Senescence may confound attempts to examine or apply general hypotheses of age-related reproduction that assume a monotonic relationship between age and reproduction or survival.