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Extra-pair paternity in seabirds: a review and case study of Thin-billed Prions Pachyptila belcheri

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Abstract

Seabirds are long-lived birds that exhibit very high levels of parental investment, and male parental care is indispensable. Seabirds have comparable breeding and life history parameters, being colonial, long-lived, and exhibiting little or no sex dimorphism. It is thought that these characteristics explain why seabirds exhibit a uniformly low level of extra-pair paternity. However, among the relatively few seabirds that have been studied to date, some regularly engage in extra-pair copulations, and the reasons for such inter-specific variability remain unclear. We here analyse paternity in a small sub-Antarctic seabird, the Thin-billed Prions Pachyptila belcheri, using species-specific microsatellites as genetic markers. We found that 7 of 34 chicks (21%) were not fathered by the male pair partner. This value is among the highest recorded for seabirds, and it now needs to be established if these result from forced copulations as suggested for some albatross species, or female cuckoldry.

Zusammenfassung

Fremdvaterschaften bei Seevögeln: eine Übersicht und Fallstudie an Dünnschnabel-Walvögeln Pachyptila belcheri

Seevögel sind langlebig und zeigen ein hohes Maß an elterlichen Investitionen mit obligater Versorgung durch weibliche und mänchliche Elterntiere. Seevögel haben weiterhin vergleichbare Brut- und Life History-Parameter, so zum Beispiel Koloniebrüten, Langlebigkeit und schwachen oder keinen Geschlechtsdimorphismus. Man nimmt daher an, daß diese Charakteristika mit einem einheitlich niedrigen Maß an Fremdvaterschaften bei Seevögeln im Zusammenhamng stehen. Unter den relativ wenigen bisher untersuchten Seevögeln gibt es jedoch auch solche, bei denen regelmäßig Fremdvaterschaften beobachtet werden, und die Gründe für die zwischenartliche Variabilität sind bislang nicht geklärt. In der vorliegenden Arbeit untersuchen wir Vaterschaftsbeziehungen in einer kleinen subantarktischen Seevogelart, dem Dünnschnabel-Walvogel Pachyptila belcheri, mit Hilfe von artsprezifischen Mikrosatelliten als genetischen Markern. Wir fanden sieben Fremdvaterschften in 34 Küken bzw. Bruten (21%). Dieser Wert gehört zu den höchsten, die bei Seevögeln festgestellt wurden. In Folgeuntersuchungen sollte nun ermittelt werden, ob die Fremdvaterschaften das Ergebnis erzwungener Kopulationen sind, wie es für einige Albatrossarten vorgeschlagen wurde, oder ob Weibchen aktiv fremdgehen.

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Acknowledgments

The New Island Conservation Trust, Ian, Maria and Georgina Strange and Dan Birch facilitated fieldwork at New Island, which was approved and co-funded by the Falkland Islands Government (Environmental Planning Office). This study was funded by grants provided by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG (Qu 148/1ff and SFB 454). We thank Katja Fleckenstein and Hendrika (Riek) van Noordwijk for technical assistance with genetic analyses and Sjouke Kingma for help with CERVUS paternity analyses. We are grateful to Jan T. Lifjeld and an anonymous referee for their helpful comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Vogelwarte Radolfzell, Max-Planck-Institut für Ornithologie, Radolfzell, Germany

    Petra Quillfeldt & Juan F. Masello

  2. Department of Wildlife Ecology and Management, University Freiburg, Tennenbacher Str.4, 79106, Freiburg, Germany

    Gernot Segelbacher

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  1. Petra Quillfeldt
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  2. Juan F. Masello
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  3. Gernot Segelbacher
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Correspondence to Petra Quillfeldt.

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Communicated by P. H. Becker.

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Quillfeldt, P., Masello, J.F. & Segelbacher, G. Extra-pair paternity in seabirds: a review and case study of Thin-billed Prions Pachyptila belcheri . J Ornithol 153, 367–373 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-011-0751-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-011-0751-9

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