Helminth parasites can have wide‐ranging, detrimental effects on host reproduction and survival. These effects are best documented in humans and domestic animals, while only a few studies in wild mammals have identified both the forces that drive helminth infection risk and their costs to individual fitness. Working in a well‐studied population of wild baboons ( To accomplish these goals, we measured helminth parasite burdens in 745 faecal samples collected over 5 years from 122 female baboons. We combine these data with detailed observations of host environments, social behaviours, hormone levels and interbirth intervals (IBIs). We found that helminths are costly to female fertility: females infected with more diverse parasite communities (i.e., higher parasite richness) exhibited longer IBIs than females infected by fewer parasite taxa. We also found that females exhibiting high Our results provide an unusually holistic understanding of the factors that contribute to inter‐individual differences in parasite infection, and they contribute to just a handful of studies linking helminths to host fitness in wild mammals.
- Award ID(s):
- 1717282
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10347555
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
- Volume:
- 376
- Issue:
- 1837
- ISSN:
- 0962-8436
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 20200356
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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