Nature Communications (Feb 2021)

Extreme temperatures compromise male and female fertility in a large desert bird

  • Mads F. Schou,
  • Maud Bonato,
  • Anel Engelbrecht,
  • Zanell Brand,
  • Erik I. Svensson,
  • Julian Melgar,
  • Pfunzo T. Muvhali,
  • Schalk W. P. Cloete,
  • Charlie K. Cornwallis

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-20937-7
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 1
pp. 1 – 10

Abstract

Read online

Climate change may pose a challenge not only for survival of animals but also for their reproduction. Here, Schou et al. analyse how male and female ostrich fertility relates to fluctuating temperature across 20 years, finding reduced fertility away from the thermal optimum, but also individual variation in thermal tolerance.