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Carotenoid-derived ornaments reflect parental quality in male and female yellow-eyed penguins (Megadyptes antipodes)

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Abstract

The handicap principle suggests that ornamental traits that function as honest signals in mate selection must be costly to be effective. We evaluated in the sexually monochromatic yellow-eyed penguin (Megadyptes antipodes) whether the carotenoid-derived plumage and eye coloration predicts parental quality and whether males and females within pairs mate assortatively in relation to these carotenoid-derived ornaments. In addition, we investigated whether age or body condition was related to the coloration of the ornamental traits. In yellow-eyed penguins, parental quality of males and females was predicted by eye and head plumage coloration. Even when we controlled for gender- and age-specific differences, eye and head plumage coloration reflected honestly parental quality. Males and females mated assortatively in relation to these ornamental traits. While age influenced coloration of both the eye and head plumage, body condition was related only to the saturation of plumage coloration. These results provide evidence that the carotenoid-derived ornaments in yellow-eyed penguins reflect the parental abilities of birds and, therefore, may be costly signals. Potentially, female and male yellow-eyed penguins could use eye and plumage coloration as an indirect cue in assessing age and quality of individual birds during mate choice. This is only the second study to examine plumage coloration in relation to sexual selection in penguins, while conspicuous ornamental traits in other species of penguin beg the question whether they also play a role in sexual selection.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Alvin Setiawan, Mike Hazel, Sylviane Neumann, Danilo Hegg, Brad Robson and all the volunteers that helped during these years of data collection on yellow-eyed penguins breeding at Boulder Beach. We are grateful to Ken Miller for assistance with photography and graphics. We thank the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust for financial, logistical and moral support. We are grateful to Ian Jamieson and two anonymous reviewers for making helpful comments to improve this manuscript. Flipper banding of penguins and all collecting of data, which were used in this manuscript, has been approved by the Department of Conservation and the University of Otago Animal Ethics Committee and comply with the current laws of New Zealand. In particular, we thank Dean Nelson, Bruce McKinlay and Dave Houston from the Department of Conservation for support and permits. The study was supported by grants from the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust, the Department of Conservation, a University of Otago Postgraduate Scholarship to M.M. and an Otago Research Grant to L.S.D.

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  1. Department of Zoology, University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand

    Melanie Massaro, Lloyd S. Davis & John T. Darby

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  1. Melanie Massaro
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  2. Lloyd S. Davis
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Correspondence to Melanie Massaro.

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Communicated by C.R. Brown

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Massaro, M., Davis, L.S. & Darby, J.T. Carotenoid-derived ornaments reflect parental quality in male and female yellow-eyed penguins (Megadyptes antipodes). Behav Ecol Sociobiol 55, 169–175 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-003-0683-3

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