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1.
Verena Dietrich-Bischoff Tim Schmoll Wolfgang Winkel Sven Krackow Thomas Lubjuhn 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》2006,60(4):563-571
Females of many socially monogamous bird species commonly engage in extra-pair copulations. Assuming that extra-pair males are more attractive than the females’ social partners and that attractiveness has a heritable component, sex allocation theory predicts facultative overproduction of sons among extra-pair offspring (EPO) as sons benefit more than daughters from inheriting their father’s attractiveness traits. Here, we present a large-scale, three-year study on sex ratio variation in a passerine bird, the coal tit (Parus ater). Molecular sexing in combination with paternity analysis revealed no evidence for a male-bias in EPO sex ratios compared to their within-pair maternal half-siblings. Our main conclusion, therefore, is that facultative sex allocation to EPO is absent in the coal tit, in accordance with findings in several other species. Either there is no net selection for a deviation from random sex ratio variation (e.g. because extra-pair mating may serve goals different from striving for ‘attractiveness genes’) or evolutionary constraints preclude the evolution of precise maternal sex ratio adjustment. It is interesting to note that, however, we found broods without EPO as well as broods without mortality to be relatively female-biased compared to broods with EPO and mortality, respectively. We were unable to identify any environmental or parental variable to co-vary with brood sex ratios. There was no significant repeatability of sex ratios in consecutive broods of individual females that would hint at some idiosyncratic maternal sex ratio adjustment. Further research is needed to resolve the biological significance of the correlation between brood sex ratios and extra-pair paternity and mortality incidence, respectively. 相似文献
2.
Kaspar Delhey Anne Peters Arild Johnsen Bart Kempenaers 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》2007,61(6):853-862
Sex-allocation theory predicts that females paired to attractive males should bias the brood sex ratio towards male offspring,
as these would inherit the attractiveness of their father. We studied sex allocation based on male ornamentation in blue tits.
Brood sex ratios varied with male UV coloration in an age-dependent manner. For juvenile males, the proportion of sons increased
with increasing UV ornamentation, which is in agreement with previous findings from a Swedish population. However, the relationship
between UV ornamentation and brood sex ratio was reversed for adult males, with females paired to less UV-ornamented adult
males producing more sons. This pattern fits with the observation that, in our population, less UV-ornamented adult males
sire the majority of extra-pair young. To test the causality of the association between brood sex ratio and male coloration,
we experimentally manipulated crown colour largely within the natural range. We created two groups of males: one with higher
and one with lower UV reflectance, UV(+) and UV(−), respectively. Contrary to our expectations, there was no significant treatment
effect. However, in UV(−), but not UV(+) males, the proportion of sons was negatively correlated with male coloration before
manipulation. This suggests that the UV(−) treatment caused males that were more UV ornamented to decline more in attractiveness,
as shown in a similar experiment in Sweden. However, given that correlational patterns differ between these populations, similarities
in experimental results should not be taken as evidence for consistent patterns of adaptive sex allocation in this species. 相似文献
3.
The local resource enhancement (LRE) model predicts that in cooperatively breeding species, sex ratios will be biased in favor
of the more helpful sex. In this study, we assess the assumptions underlying the LRE model in a population of cooperatively
breeding wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) in Northern Botswana monitored over a 15-year period. In this population, litter size and pup survival to 1 year are strongly
affected by pack size and the breeding female’s age, but adult males have a stronger and more linear effect on females’ reproductive
performance than do adult females. This asymmetry in the benefits derived from male and female helpers is reflected in male-biased
sex ratios in litters at the time pups emerge from the den. Sex ratio biases are most pronounced in the litters of the youngest
mothers who live in significantly smaller packs than older females. The presence of potential rivals for the dominant female’s
position depresses pup production at the time of emergence, suggesting that competition among females for breeding positions
may also contribute to the selective forces affecting birth sex ratios. 相似文献
4.
János Török Rita Hargitai Gergely Hegyi Zoltán Matus Gábor Michl Péter Péczely Balázs Rosivall Gyula Tóth 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》2007,61(4):541-550
Birds may influence the fitness of their offspring by transmission of different amounts of carotenoids to their eggs. Carotenoids
play crucial roles in antioxidant protection and immune defence mechanisms, but they may be available to females in limiting
amounts. Therefore, their allocation to the eggs may be influenced by the female’s condition, age and environmental circumstances.
Furthermore, the quality of the male parent, which affects the reproductive value of the offspring, may also influence this
investment. In this correlational study, we investigated proximate and ultimate factors that may lead to variation in yolk
lutein, zeaxanthin and β-carotene concentrations among and within clutches of a wild passerine, the collared flycatcher (Ficedula albicollis). We found that carotenoid concentration was positively associated with caterpillar supply at the time of egg formation,
which suggests a proximate constraint of carotenoid availability on yolk composition. Neither female condition, body size,
age, nor male plumage ornamentation, age and body size correlated with carotenoid deposition. Yolk β-carotene concentration
was found to be positively linked to yolk testosterone concentration. We suggest that females allocated more β-carotene to
their eggs to mitigate the potentially detrimental effects of elevated steroid concentration. We found that concentration
of β-carotene increased with laying order. The possible function of this pattern may be to enhance the resistance to oxidative
stress and pathogens of the disadvantaged last-hatching nestling, suggesting that collared flycatchers pursue a compensatory,
“brood survival” strategy. 相似文献
5.
Parental condition, brood sex ratio and differential young survival: an experimental study in gulls (Larus fuscus) 总被引:6,自引:6,他引:0
R. G. Nager P. Monaghan D. C. Houston M. Genovart 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》2000,48(6):452-457
Empirical evidence is growing that the offspring sex ratio in birds can be biased in relation to the body condition of parents
during breeding. The sex ratio bias may come about because (1) the actual production of the two sexes may be skewed and/or
(2) there may be a sex bias in early nestling mortality contingent on parental condition. By manipulating parental condition
and giving them a control brood to rear, thereby eliminating effects operating via the eggs, we examined the extent to which
parental condition influences the post-hatching survival of male and female lesser black-backed gulls, Larus fuscus. We found that the pre-fledging survival of male chicks was strongly reduced in all-male broods reared by parents in poor
condition. Pre-fledging survival of female chicks was, however, unaffected by parental condition or brood sex composition.
Thus, independently of any production biases, sex differences in nestling mortality alone can bias the offspring sex ratio
at fledging in relation to the prevailing rearing conditions. In other studies on gulls we have, however, also shown that
females in poor condition at laying preferentially produce female eggs. Clearly a bias in fledging sex ratio can occur within
the same species due to a combination of differential production and differential post-laying mortality; the latter can involve
a differential effect of poor egg quality on male and female offspring, differential effects of brood sex composition on their
survival and a difference in the capacity of parents to rear males and females. All of these processes need to be taken into
account in attempting to understand offspring sex ratios.
Received: 15 February 2000 / Revised: 7 August 2000 / Accepted: 26 August 2000 相似文献
6.
Environmental effects on sex allocation are common, yet the evolutionary significance of these effects remains poorly understood.
Environmental effects might influence parents, such that their condition directly influences sex allocation by altering the
relative benefits of producing sons versus daughters. Alternatively, the environment might influence the offspring themselves,
such that the conditions they find themselves in influence their contribution to parental fitness. In both cases, parents
might be selected to bias their sex ratio according to the prevailing environmental conditions. Here, we consider sex allocation
in the citrus mealybug Planococcus citri, a species with an unusual genetic system in which paternal genes are lost from the germline in males. We test environmental
factors that may influence either female condition directly (rearing temperature and food restriction) or that may be used
as cues of the future environment (age at mating). Using cytological techniques to obtain primary sex ratios, we show that
high temperature, older age at mating and starvation all affect sex allocation, resulting in female-biased sex ratios. However,
the effect of temperature is rather weak, and food restriction appears to be strongly associated with reduced longevity and
a truncation of the usual schedule of male and offspring production across a female’s reproductive lifetime. Instead, facultative
sex allocation seems most convincingly affected by age at mating, supporting previous work that suggests that social interactions
experienced by adult P. citri females are used when allocating sex. Our results highlight that, even within one species, different aspects of the environment
may have conflicting effects on sex allocation. 相似文献
7.
E. C. Pariser L. Gilbert N. Hazon K. E. Arnold J. A. Graves 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》2012,66(4):519-527
Females are expected to partition resources between offspring in a context-dependent way to maximise total fitness returns
from a reproductive attempt. Female zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) vary the allocation of yolk androgens and antioxidants among offspring. Importantly, the balance between androgens and antioxidants
in yolks may be more important than their independent absolute amounts in terms of fitness consequences for developing young.
Therefore, we tested whether the relative allocation of these two resources in yolks varies according to either the Trivers–Willard,
positive or compensatory maternal investment hypothesis. We manipulated male attractiveness using coloured leg bands (red-banded
males appear attractive; green-banded males, unattractive) and measured yolk androgens and antioxidants in each egg, egg sex,
clutch sex ratio and female condition. While female zebra finches manipulated the balance of androgens and antioxidants within
and between clutches in response to mate attractiveness, offspring sex and their own condition, they did not do so in a way
that consistently followed any of the hypotheses. Mothers paired with unattractive males allocated a larger antioxidant/androgen
ratio to daughters than sons. This pattern was reversed when paired to an attractive male; sons received a larger antioxidant/androgen
ratio than daughters. We also found offspring sex ratio decreased with increasing female condition for unattractive males,
but not for attractive males. However, without knowing the fitness consequences of the balance of different egg constituents,
it is difficult to interpret the patterns consistently in terms of the Trivers–Willard, compensatory and positive investment
hypotheses. 相似文献
8.
An organism’s pattern of development can have important long-term fitness effects. In species where the sexes differ in size
or other phenotypic traits, they may also have different optimal developmental rates. This influences both parental sex allocation
strategies and susceptibility of the sexes to early developmental conditions. However, sex differences in developmental rate
and vulnerability to environment during the embryonic period are not well understood. In birds, sibling competition and hatching
asynchrony may select for accelerated embryonic development of the last offspring in order to reduce their competitive disadvantage
after hatching. They may advance their hatching in response to vocal stimuli by the older siblings. It is, however, unclear
whether this flexibility in developmental rates is sex specific. In this study, we experimentally manipulated between-embryo
contact and tested whether this affected the pre-natal developmental rate and post-hatching performance of male and female
offspring from last-laid eggs in the herring gull. Post-hatching performance was measured both in competitive and non-competitive
situations. Among young incubated in isolation, males hatched faster than females, but both sexes fledged in similar, relatively
good condition. Among young incubated with normal between-embryo contact, hatching time did not differ between sexes, but
males fledged in poorer condition than females, regardless of whether they were reared singly or in a brood. These results
suggest that male and female offspring differ in their ability to mitigate the costs of hatching asynchrony. 相似文献
9.
Katja Hogendoorn Ni Watiniasih Michael P. Schwarz 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》2001,50(3):275-282
The possibility of extending brood care via the overlapping presence of relatively short lived adults could generate advantages that may have been among the selective forces at the origin of eusociality. In this paper we provide evidence for extended brood care through sib-rearing in the arid-zone allodapine bee, Exoneurella eremophila. Solitary females of the overwintered generation generally die before all their offspring have become independent. In a relatively high proportion of nests, a newly eclosed female invests in her siblings while producing her own offspring in the maternal nest. The sex ratio of the first offspring produced by the overwintered female is highly female biased, but the overall sex ratio of the brood is unbiased. This finding supports the prediction of Bull's 'insurance by protogyny' model of a female bias in the first-produced offspring as a strategy by the mother to ensure extended brood care. 相似文献
10.
Summary In many bees and wasps, solitary females produce offspring without help from other females. The transition from lone mothers producing offspring to situations in which females often help to rear siblings is an important step in the origins of complex sociality and nonreproductive castes. Recent work on Hymenoptera has stressed the role of sex ratio variation in this transition; when a mother's brood is more female biased than average, older daughters are favored to help rear their younger siblings because they are more closely related to sisters than to their own offspring. Here the direction of causality is from biased sex ratios, which arise by some extrinsic mechanism, to the origins of sib-rearing (eusociality). We present a model in which there is a synergism between sib-rearing and female-biased sex ratios, which may either complement the sex ratio variation idea by increasing the rate at which helping spreads or be an alternative hypothesis about the origins of eusociality. The synergism in our model depends on three conditions. 1) Daughters that help cause more food to be provisioned per offspring, which in turn causes larger offspring. 2) Females gain more than males by being large, which favors mothers with helpers to produce a higher proportion of daughters. 3) A helper's inclusive fitness rises as her mother's brood becomes increasingly female biased because a female helper is more closely related to her sisters than to her brothers. A female helper may also be more closely related to her sisters than to her own offspring, but this particular sibling-offspring relatedness asymmetry is not required by the synergism model. These three conditions create a synergism which favors a rapid transition from solitary (subsocial) to eusocial. Demographic and ecological factors that facilitate the evolution of eusociality reduce the stringency of the relatedness asymmetry condition (3) required by our idea. The synergism model therefore complements factors other than relatedness that may have been important during the evolution of eusociality. 相似文献
11.
Júlio M. Neto Bengt Hansson Dennis Hasselquist 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》2011,65(2):297-304
Sex allocation theory predicts that whenever the relative fitness of sons and daughters differ, females should invest more
in the sex with the greatest fitness return. In this study, we evaluated the influence of various ecological factors on the
brood sex ratio (BSR) of Savi’s warblers (Locustella luscinioides) across several breeding seasons. There was a slight but significant female production bias at the population level, which
is consistent with the ‘local resource competition’ hypothesis, as the breeding density is very high and females are more
prone to disperse. We found that there was a significant decline in BSR during the breeding season, but no influence of male
size, female size, social status nor extra-pair paternity were detected. The seasonal decline in BSR was further evaluated
by assessing the within- and between-female effects, which indicated that multiple factors were operating simultaneously in
our study population. First, there was a significant within-female decline in BSR, which was consistent with the decline in
female condition due to the reproductive effort associated with multiple brooding (supporting the Trivers and Willard hypothesis).
Second, a significant decline in BSR with the laying date of first clutches of different pairs indicated that male and/or
female qualities are also associated with the seasonal variation in BSR. Finally, a comparison between the sex of the youngest
nestling with the remaining ones did not suggest any bias, indicating that females do not compensate for the increased mortality
of the last nestling (caused by asynchronous hatching) by producing a male from the last laid egg. 相似文献
12.
Maria I. Sandell 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》2007,62(2):255-262
In the European starling, Sturnus vulgaris, optimal mating systems differ between males and females. Males gain from polygyny, whereas monogamy increases female fitness.
The cost of polygyny to females lead to intense female–female competition, and it has previously been shown that the intensity
of female aggression during the pre-breeding period can predict the realised mating system. The physiological regulation of
such female aggression in starlings is not yet known. This study examines the role of testosterone in mediating aggressive
behaviours involved in intra-specific reproductive competition in female starlings. Testosterone levels were experimentally
elevated with testosterone implants in females during the pre-laying period. To simulate a situation in which an additional
female tried to mate with the focal female’s mate, a caged female was presented close to a nest-site to which the male could
attract a secondary female. Testosterone was significantly related to several behaviours involved in female–female interactions.
Females with testosterone implants spent significantly more time close to the caged female and produced more song bouts than
control females. In contrast, male behaviour was unrelated to the experimental status of the mate. Females mated to males
that attracted a secondary female were less aggressive towards the caged female than those that remained monogamously mated.
The effect of exogenous testosterone in this study indicates that androgens may mediate social behaviours in female starlings
during the breeding season. 相似文献
13.
Joel W. McGlothlin Deborah L. Duffy Jessica L. Henry-Freeman Ellen D. Ketterson 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》2007,61(9):1391-1399
Sexually selected traits that act as signals of quality often display some degree of condition dependence. In birds, condition
dependence of ornamental plumage is often mediated by production costs related to acquisition or allocation of dietary resources.
White plumage ornaments, however, have often been assumed to be inexpensive because their production requires neither pigment
nor specialized feather structure. In male dark-eyed juncos (Junco hyemalis), the size of a white patch on the tail contributes to attractiveness and mating success. Using captive males, we examined
the effects of diet quality on the size and brightness of the tail-white patch. After removing four tail feathers to induce
replacement, we maintained subjects on a subsistence (low-protein) or enriched (high-protein) diet while induced feathers
grew. Birds that received an enriched diet grew their feathers more quickly and grew larger, brighter white patches. Feather
growth rate was positively correlated with the increase in the size of the tail-white patch, a relationship that was stronger
in the subsistence diet group. However, within diet treatments, faster-grown feathers were slightly duller. Taken together,
these results suggest that variation in diet quality may lead to condition-dependent expression of tail white and that condition
dependence may be stronger in more stressful environments. We suggest a mechanism by which increased feather growth rate may
lead to an increase in the size of the tail-white patch and discuss potential trade-offs between signal size and brightness. 相似文献
14.
Matteo Griggio Francisco Valera Alejandro Casas-Crivillé Herbert Hoi Andrés Barbosa 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》2011,65(4):655-664
In birds, colourful and elaborate feathers are important traits in mate choice. Distinct tail white patches are present in
many species of birds, but they remain little studied. Tail markings may indeed have a signal function because in many species
males spread the tail offering a good view of these markings to females during courtship behaviour. Here, we investigated
whether white tail spots in male rock sparrow, Petronia petronia, play a role in mate choice. In a free-living population of rock sparrows, we found a reduction in white tail spots size
as the breeding season progressed due to abrasion, which was expected if tail spots act as a reliable quality indicator (i.e.
a handicap). The same reduction was found under captive conditions, and males in worse condition (individuals that lost more
weight) abraded a bigger part of white. This suggests that white tail markings are an indicator of male quality. In captivity,
we measured female preference for males differing in white patch size in a mate choice experiment. The experimental reduction
of the size of the males’ white spots resulted in a lower sexual interest by females. During courtship display, male rock
sparrow shows a yellow breast patch (a carotenoid-based, sexually selected ornament) together with the white spots in the
tail. The sizes of these two traits are positively correlated, but only the abraded white area in the tail correlates with
a surrogate of individual quality (lost of weight). In conclusion, we can assert that the size of the white spots is preferred
by female rock sparrows and it is a part of a multiple signal system. 相似文献
15.
Amy C. Dolan Michael T. Murphy Lucas J. Redmond Debbie Duffield 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》2009,63(10):1527-1537
Sex allocation theory predicts that if variance in reproductive success differs between the sexes, females who are able to
produce high-quality young should bias offspring sex ratio towards the sex with the higher potential reproductive success.
We tested the hypothesis that high-quality (i.e., heavy) female eastern kingbirds (Tyrannus tyrannus) that bred early in the breeding season would produce male-biased clutches. A significant opportunity for sexual selection
also exists in this socially monogamous but cryptically polygamous species, and we predicted that successful extra-pair (EP)
sires would be associated with an excess of male offspring. Although population brood sex ratio did not differ from parity,
it increased significantly with female body mass and declined with female breeding date, but was independent of the morphology
and display (song) behavior (correlates of reproductive success) of social males and EP sires. Male offspring were significantly
heavier than female offspring at fledging. Moreover, the probability that male offspring were resighted in subsequent years
declined with breeding date, and was greater in replacement clutches, but lower when clutch size was large. Probability of
resighting female offspring varied annually, but was independent of all other variables. Given that variance in reproductive
success of male kingbirds is much greater than that of females, and that male offspring are more expensive to produce and
have a higher probability of recruitment if fledged early in the season, our results support predictions of sex allocation
theory: high-quality (heavy) females breeding when conditions were optimal for male recruitment produced an excess of sons. 相似文献
16.
Roman M. Wittig Catherine Crockford Robert M. Seyfarth Dorothy L. Cheney 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》2007,61(6):899-909
Theory predicts that females in species with matrilineal dominance hierarchies should use nepotistic support systems to maintain
their family’s rank. Female Old World monkeys, however, form alliances against other females at surprisingly low rates. Nonetheless,
in many species, females utter threat vocalizations when observing others’ disputes, suggesting that these vocalizations may
function as ‘vocal alliances’. We describe a playback experiment testing the efficacy of vocal alliances in free-ranging female
baboons. Subjects were played the same female’s threat-grunts under three separate conditions: after being threatened by the
signaller’s close relative to mimic kin support, after being threatened by a female maternally unrelated to the signaller
to mimic non-kin support, and after a friendly interaction with the signaller’s close relative as a control. Subjects responded
more strongly to the playback and avoided the signaller and her matrilineal relatives for a longer period of time in kin support
trials than in either non-kin support or no aggression trials. In contrast, there was no difference in subjects’ behaviour
between non-kin support and no aggression trials. These results corroborate observational data showing that vocal support
occurs at a higher rate than physical support in female baboons, and that kin are more likely to provide vocal support than
non-kin. We conclude that vocal support plays a similar role as physical support in the alliances of female baboons. 相似文献
17.
Scott Forbes 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》2010,64(3):475-483
In avian families, some offspring are rendered unequal by parental fiat. By imposing phenotypic handicaps (e.g., via asynchronous
hatching) upon certain of their offspring and not others, parents structure the sibship into castes of advantaged “core” offspring
and disadvantaged “marginal” offspring that results in an asymmetric sibling rivalry. Here, I show how this family structure
scales up to population level reproductive consequences. In a 17-year study of red-winged blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus), I show that year-to-year variation in the number of surviving offspring is driven primarily by variation in the number
of marginal offspring at hatching and their posthatching survival. Clutch size, core brood at hatching, and fledging varied
little from year to year and had little direct effect on year-to-year variation in total brood size at fledging; conversely,
variation in the size of the marginal brood at hatching and at fledging was much greater. Marginal but not core brood size
at hatching rose with mean clutch size; in years where parents laid larger average clutches they did so by adding marginal
progeny. The mean posthatching survival of marginal offspring was always lower than that of core offspring in a given year,
and there was no overlap in the distributions. The highest mean survival of marginal offspring across years fell below the
lowest mean survival of core offspring; broods were deeply structured. There was an overall female bias among fledglings,
and the sex ratio varied across years, with a higher proportion of the smaller female nestlings in years of below average
reproductive success. Such variation was especially pronounced in the marginal brood where a higher incidence of brood reduction
allowed greater potential for sex-biased nestling mortality. In years of the highest average reproductive success, the sex
ratio in the marginal brood approached equality, whereas in years of the lowest average reproductive success, more than two
thirds of 8-day-old nestlings were female. Structuring the brood into core and marginal elements allowed parents to modulate
both offspring number and sex under ecological uncertainty with direct consequences for population-level reproductive success.
They produced fewer and less expensive fledglings in below average years and more and more expensive fledglings in above average
years. 相似文献
18.
Heterospecific matings are generally assumed to be unconditionally disadvantageous due to reduced viability or fertility of
hybrid offspring. For female collared flycatchers (Ficedula albicollis) mated to male pied flycatchers (Ficedula hypoleuca), the cost of heterospecific pair formation is reduced due to high levels of conspecific extra-pair paternity and a male-biased
offspring sex ratio. In order to investigate whether these cost-reducing mechanisms are the result of female mating strategies,
rather than being a by-product of species incompatibilities, we manipulated the plumage of male collared flycatchers before
pair formation to make them resemble male pied flycatchers. Since species incompatibilities are absent in this design, any
systematic effect of manipulation on sex ratio or paternity would indicate a role of female mating strategy. Paternity was
determined by means of a likelihood approach that controls the errors made in assigning a chick to be ‘within-pair’ or ‘extra-pair’.
Neither the sex ratio nor the male share of paternity was affected by the manipulation in a systematic manner. We therefore
conclude that our experimental data provide no support for the suggestion that female behavioural strategies are markedly
adjusted in response to formation of mixed-species pairs.
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. 相似文献
19.
Keith W. Sockman Jack Weiss Michael S. Webster Vanessa Talbott Hubert Schwabl 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》2008,62(4):617-625
Maternally derived androgen hormones concentrate in avian egg yolks as the yolks grow on the female’s ovary, possibly forming
a basis for important maternal effects in birds. In the American kestrel (Falco sparverius), experimental elevation of yolk androgens in the first-laid egg of a clutch (a-egg) to the concentrations found naturally
in a clutch’s later-laid eggs reduces the growth rate of a-egg nestlings compared to controls. These findings, together with
discoveries from other species that the effects of yolk androgens on growth of female nestlings may differ from their effects
on growth of male nestlings, raise the hypothesis that natural changes in yolk-androgen concentrations with laying order are
ultimately due to a difference between the sexes in their yolk-androgen sensitivity and between early- and late-laid eggs
in their sex ratio. By re-analyzing previously published data and adding to the analysis data from previously unanalyzed blood
samples used for sex determination, we investigated possible sex-specific effects of yolk-androgens in the context of a potential
sex-biased laying order in free-living American kestrels. We used a multi-level, mixed model with a Gompertz function to analyze
growth of nestlings hatching from a-eggs that were control-treated or in which we experimentally elevated yolk-androgen concentrations
shortly after laying to the higher concentrations naturally found in later-laid eggs. We discovered that male nestlings were
more susceptible than female nestlings to growth inhibition by yolk-androgen elevation but did not find a bias in sex ratio
with respect to laying order. Together, these findings do not support the above hypothesis. However, they are consistent with
the hypothesis that sex differences in yolk-androgen sensitivity enable mothers to economically tune reproductive effort to
an individual offspring’s reproductive value, which can vary more for one sex than the other. 相似文献
20.
Sex allocation theory predicts that female birds with high-quality mates will benefit from producing more sons, since sons
will inherit their father’s superior traits and enjoy a great reproductive success, whereas females with low-quality mates
will benefit from producing more daughters, since the variance in reproductive success among daughters is typically lower.
The male attractiveness hypothesis may apply to extra-pair paternity (EPP) because socially monogamous females routinely mate
with higher quality males outside the pair bond. We test these predictions using the Tibetan ground tit (Pseudopodoces humilis), a sexually monomorphic, socially monogamous, facultatively cooperative breeder. There was greater variation in actual reproductive
success among males than females due to EPP. An excess of sons was detected for bi-parental (i.e., non-cooperative) broods
wherein EPP was mainly sired by bi-parental males. The pattern was attributed to male-biased sex ratios produced for both
EPP and within-pair offspring within the same broods. The reason for the latter case might be a random allocation of more
offspring to sons by the potentially EPP-exposed females that have an inability to control fertilization by specific males.
In cooperative broods where EPP mostly resulted from within-group helpers of presumed low-quality, as indicated by their failure
in acquiring a social mate, there was a non-significant tendency for EPP offspring to be daughters and for within-pair offspring
in the same broods to be unbiased. These results support the EPP-related male attractiveness hypothesis especially in terms
of the overproduction of sons. Offspring produced through quasi-parasitism was unbiased towards either sex, suggesting a weak
female choiceness with respect to the quality of host males. 相似文献