Sexual conflict over fertilizations: female bluethroats escape male paternity guards |
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Authors: | Arild Johnsen Jan T Lifjeld Percy A Rohde Craig R Primmer Hans Ellegren |
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Institution: | (1) Zoological Museum, University of Oslo, Sars gate 1, N-0562 Oslo, Norway e-mail: arild.johnsen@toyen.uio.no, Fax: +47-22-851837, NO;(2) Department of Animal Breeding and Genetics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Biomedical Centre, Box 597, S-75124 Uppsala, Sweden, SE |
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Abstract: | Extra-pair copulations create a potential for sexual conflict in pair-bonding birds. Here we report an experimental study
of the bluethroat, Luscinia s. svecica, in which the throat ornament of males was blackened with Nyanzol D in order to reduce their sexual attractiveness and thus
increase the sexual conflict over fertilizations. In an earlier study, we showed that males blackened before pairing had a
lower success in attracting social mates than controls, whereas males blackened after pairing guarded their mates more intensely
and sang less than controls. Here we add behavioural data from one more year on males blackened after pairing and corroborate
our previous finding that the manipulation caused males to guard their mates more intensely and advertise less for additional
mates. Blackened males did not suffer more intrusions from neighbouring males than did controls. Paternity analyses of the
combined data set, using multilocus DNA fingerprinting and microsatellite typing, revealed that blackened males lost significantly
more paternity than controls. There was also a tendency for blackened males to show a lower success in achieving extra-pair
fertilizations. These results indicate that females have the upper hand in the sexual conflict over fertilizations, as females
paired with unattractive males can achieve more extra-pair paternity despite the greater constraint posed by the intensified
mate guarding. Still, within the blackened group, there were some indications that males guarding more intensely and singing
less had higher paternity than males guarding less and singing more, suggesting a marginal positive effect of guarding for
unattractive males. Male mate guarding must nevertheless be considered a best-of-a-bad-job strategy in this species.
Received: 4 December 1997 / Accepted after revision: 14 June 1998 |
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Keywords: | Luscinia s svecica Sexual conflict Male attractiveness Mate guarding Extra-pair paternity DNA fingerprinting |
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