Sexual selection drives sex difference in adult life expectancy across mammals and birds

Johanna Staerk; Dalia A. Conde; Morgane Tidière; Jean François Lemaître; András Liker; Balázs Vági; Samuel Pavard; Mathieu Giraudeau; Simeon Q. Smeele; Orsolya Vincze; Victor Ronget; Rita da Silva; Zjef Pereboom; Mads F. Bertelsen; Jean Michel Gaillard; Tamás Székely; Fernando Colchero

doi:10.1126/sciadv.ady8433

Sexual selection drives sex difference in adult life expectancy across mammals and birds

Johanna Staerk, Dalia A. Conde, Morgane Tidière, Jean François Lemaître, András Liker, Balázs Vági, Samuel Pavard, Mathieu Giraudeau, Simeon Q. Smeele, Orsolya Vincze, Victor Ronget, Rita da Silva, Zjef Pereboom, Mads F. Bertelsen, Jean Michel Gaillard, Tamás Székely, Fernando Colchero

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Across human cultures and historical periods, women, on average, live longer than men, a pattern best understood from a comparative evolutionary perspective. Here, we analyzed adult life expectancy in 528 mammal and 648 bird species in zoos. Like humans, 72% of mammals exhibited a female life expectancy advantage, while 68% of birds showed a male advantage, as expected from the harmful effects of sex chromosomes described by the heterogametic sex hypothesis. Yet, sex differences varied widely. In zoos, we found strong evidence that this variation generally correlated with both the mating system and sexual size dimorphism. Although with weaker evidence, the patterns remained consistent in populations from the wild, with an even larger effect of the mating system. Thus, even in zoos, where environmental pressures are largely reduced, precopulatory sexual selection seems to play a fundamental role in shaping sex differences in life expectancy in mammals and birds.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	eady8433
Journal	Science Advances
Volume	11
Issue number	40
Early online date	1 Oct 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.ady8433
Publication status	Published - 3 Oct 2025

Data Availability Statement

All data needed to evaluate the conclusions in the paper are present in the paper and/or the Supplementary Materials. Raw data used in the survival analysis for estimating life expectancies (Species360 Data Use Agreement no. 101333) cannot be publicly shared, as Species360 is the custodian (not the owner) of their members’ data. Raw data are accessible through Research Request applications (form available at https://conservation.species360.org/data-sharing/). The following parameters were used in the research request: global records of birth and death dates for both males and females of all mammal and bird species, with a minimum sample size of 35 individuals per sex per species, for data collected since 1980. All aggregated data, including life tables, are available in the Supplementary Materials. All R code and data necessary to reproduce the results are available at the Zenodo repository https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15183248.

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UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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Cite this

Staerk, J., Conde, D. A., Tidière, M., Lemaître, J. F., Liker, A., Vági, B., Pavard, S., Giraudeau, M., Smeele, S. Q., Vincze, O., Ronget, V., da Silva, R., Pereboom, Z., Bertelsen, M. F., Gaillard, J. M., Székely, T., & Colchero, F. (2025). Sexual selection drives sex difference in adult life expectancy across mammals and birds. Science Advances, 11(40), eady8433. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.ady8433

Staerk, J, Conde, DA, Tidière, M, Lemaître, JF, Liker, A, Vági, B, Pavard, S, Giraudeau, M, Smeele, SQ, Vincze, O, Ronget, V, da Silva, R, Pereboom, Z, Bertelsen, MF, Gaillard, JM, Székely, T & Colchero, F 2025, 'Sexual selection drives sex difference in adult life expectancy across mammals and birds', Science Advances, vol. 11, no. 40, pp. eady8433. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.ady8433

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abstract = "Across human cultures and historical periods, women, on average, live longer than men, a pattern best understood from a comparative evolutionary perspective. Here, we analyzed adult life expectancy in 528 mammal and 648 bird species in zoos. Like humans, 72\% of mammals exhibited a female life expectancy advantage, while 68\% of birds showed a male advantage, as expected from the harmful effects of sex chromosomes described by the heterogametic sex hypothesis. Yet, sex differences varied widely. In zoos, we found strong evidence that this variation generally correlated with both the mating system and sexual size dimorphism. Although with weaker evidence, the patterns remained consistent in populations from the wild, with an even larger effect of the mating system. Thus, even in zoos, where environmental pressures are largely reduced, precopulatory sexual selection seems to play a fundamental role in shaping sex differences in life expectancy in mammals and birds.",

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AU - Vági, Balázs

AU - Pavard, Samuel

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AU - Smeele, Simeon Q.

AU - Vincze, Orsolya

AU - Ronget, Victor

AU - da Silva, Rita

AU - Pereboom, Zjef

AU - Bertelsen, Mads F.

AU - Gaillard, Jean Michel

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AU - Colchero, Fernando

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Sexual selection drives sex difference in adult life expectancy across mammals and birds

Abstract

Data Availability Statement

ASJC Scopus subject areas

UN SDGs

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