Wild quantitative genetic studies have focused on a subset of traits (largely morphological and
life-history), with others, such as behaviors, receiving much less attention. This is because it
is challenging to obtain sufficient data, particularly for behaviors involving interactions between
individuals. Here, we explore an indirect ...
Wild quantitative genetic studies have focused on a subset of traits (largely morphological and
life-history), with others, such as behaviors, receiving much less attention. This is because it
is challenging to obtain sufficient data, particularly for behaviors involving interactions between
individuals. Here, we explore an indirect approach for pilot investigations of the role of genetic
differences in generating variation in parental care. Variation in parental genetic effects for offspring
performance is expected to arise from among-parent genetic variation in parental care. Therefore,
we used the animal model to predict maternal breeding values for lamb growth and used these
predictions to select females for field observation, where maternal and lamb behaviors were recorded.
Higher predicted maternal breeding value for lamb growth was associated with greater suckling
success, but not with any other measures of suckling behavior. Though our work cannot explicitly
estimate the genetic basis of the specific traits involved, it does provide a strategy for hypothesis
generation and refinement, that we hope could be used to justify data collection costs needed for
confirmatory studies. Here results suggest that behavioral genetic variation is involved in generating
maternal genetic effects on lamb growth in Soay sheep. Though important caveats and cautions
apply, our approach may extend the ability to initiate more genetic investigations of difficult-tostudy behaviours and social interactions in natural populations.
