Fitness costs of parasitism depend on fine-scale density and resource availability in a wild ungulate

Abstract

Resource competition and parasite exposure both present common density-dependent fitness costs for wild animals. Because launching effective immune responses is costly in terms of resources, parasites fitness costs should be further exacerbated in high-density, resource-depleted areas. To disentangle these relationships, we related density, parasitism, and resource availability to survival and fecundity across lifespan in a long-term study of wild red deer. All fitness measures declined with a combination of parasite count, greater density, and reduced resource availability. Beyond these relationships, as expected, local density and resource scarcity exacerbated survival costs of parasitism in calves, effectively undermining tolerance of infection. However, these synergistic relationships faded in yearlings and then reversed in adults, likely through age-structured selection biases. These findings emphasize that the costs of parasites and resource scarcity can be synergistic and intertwined with density in wild populations, accentuating the value of incorporating resource competition when examining parasite-dependent population regulation.