DOI: 10.5061/dryad.vt4b8gtnm
title: Capture-recapture data with partially known birth date in four populations of yellow-bellied toads

description: 1.    Patterns of actuarial senescence can be highly
 variable among species. Previous comparative analyses revealed that both
 age at the onset of senescence and rates of senescence are linked to
 species position along the fast-slow life-history continuum. As there are
 few long-term datasets of wild populations with known-age individuals,
 intraspecific (i.e. between-population) variation in senescence is
 understudied and limited to comparisons of wild and captive populations of
 the same species, mostly birds and mammals.  2. 
     In this paper, we examined how population position
 along the fast-slow life history continuum affects intraspecific variation
 in senescence in an amphibian, Bombina variegata.  3. 
     We used capture-recapture data collected in four
 populations with contrasting life history strategies. Senescence
 trajectories were analyzed using Bayesian capture-recapture models.
 4.      We show that in fast populations the
 onset of actuarial senescence was earlier and individuals aged at a faster
 rate than individuals in slow populations.  5. 
     Our study provides one of the few empirical examples
 of among-population variation in actuarial senescence patterns in the wild
 and confirms that the fast-slow life history gradient is associated with
 both macroevolutionary and microevolutionary patterns of actuarial
 senescence.
description: In each population, individuals were surveyed during the breeding season,
 from 5 – 9 years using capture-recapture methods. The number of identified
 individuals was 1154 at SLOW1, 768 at SLOW2, 580 at FAST1 and 9418 at
 FAST2. The number of captures was 2907 at SLOW1, 1980 at SLOW2, 949 at
 FAST1 and 12780 at FAST2. Capture sessions were carried out during the
 breeding season from late May to July. Toads were captured by hand or with
 a dip net during daylight hours (09:00–19:00). The entire study areas were
 carefully checked every year in order to census all available waterbodies,
 which were sampled at each capture. The time required to sample the entire
 study area in a single session varied from 1 (SLOW1) to 15 days (FAST2).
 We identified each individual by the specific pattern of black and yellow
 mottles on its belly, which were recorded by photographs. To minimize
 misidentification errors, multiple comparisons of individual patterns were
 performed using the pattern-matching software Extract Compare. In this
 species, individuals cannot be individually identified before an age of
 one because the ventral color pattern used to identify individuals is not
 fixed before that age. Yet, this method permits to survey the toads for
 the rest of their lives in a non-invasive way. Only individuals can be
 aged which are one or two years old at first capture, leading to partially
 known birth date. Sex cannot be assessed with certainty before sexual
 maturity (2-3 years old) due to the lack of nuptial pads in immature
 males.
description: We provide here capture-recapture data collected in four
 populations of yellow-bellied toad (<em>Bombina
 variegata</em>) in France. The populations FAST1 and FAST2
 experience unpredictable environments (i.e., harvested woodland) whereas
 populations SLOW1 and SLOW2 occur in predictable environments (riverine
 habitat). In the dataset of each population, the first
 column is the individual ID. In the second and third columns, there is the
 birth date and death date ('0' is given if the date is unknown).
 Then come the capture histories.