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- Title
Interactive effects of male and female age on extra-pair paternity in a socially monogamous seabird.
- Authors
Ramos, Alejandra; Nunziata, Schyler; Lance, Stacey; Rodríguez, Cristina; Faircloth, Brant; Gowaty, Patricia; Drummond, Hugh
- Abstract
Females sometimes obtain older sires for their offspring through extra-pair interactions, but how female age influences paternity is largely unexplored and interactive effects across the age span of both sexes have not been analyzed. To test whether female choice of sire age varies with female age in the blue-footed booby ( Sula nebouxii), we examined associations between ages of both partners and the probability of extra-pair paternity (EPP) in 350 broods of parents up to 22 years old in a single breeding season. Extra-pair paternity enables a female to select an alternative sire for her offspring and could function to avoid or achieve particular combinations of parental ages. A male age × female age interaction revealed that in young females (≤4 years), EPP decreased with increasing age of the social partner, whereas in old females (≥8 years), it increased. Moreover, sires of extra-pair (EP) chicks of young females paired to young males were on average 6.33 years older than the females' social partners. Since female boobies control copulatory access, this pattern could imply that young females choose old sires for their proven genetic quality and that old females avoid very old males because matings with them may risk infertility or genetic defects in offspring. Taking female age into account and observing across the whole age span may be necessary for understanding female age-based mate choice.
- Subjects
SEXUAL behavior in birds; MONOGAMOUS relationships; SEA birds; BLUE-footed booby; FEMALE infertility; GENETIC disorders
- Publication
Behavioral Ecology & Sociobiology, 2014, Vol 68, Issue 10, p1603
- ISSN
0340-5443
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s00265-014-1769-9