Breeding Experience, Alternative Reproductive Strategies and Reproductive Success in a Captive Colony of Zebra Finches (Taeniopygia guttata)

Baran, Nicole M.; Adkins‐Regan, Elizabeth

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0089808

Cited by 21 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…Faithful birds take possession of their territories 25-30 d earlier , Wysocki 2006, which could be especially important in view of the shortage of nest sites in the study area Walasz 2004, Wysocki 2005). As they can start their breeding season earlier, their chances of breeding success are very much improved (Baran andAdkins-Regan 2014, Jankowiak and. Moreover, just as early offspring in the breeding season have more time to acquire foraging abilities and to gain the necessary weight before the onset of winter, thus improving their survival (McCleery andPerrins 1988, Dubiec andCichoń 2001), so their parents benefit, too, because after earlier reproduction they will have had more time to restore their condition before moulting.…”

Section: Within-season Between-state Transitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Survival costs of within‐ and between‐season mate change in the European blackbirdTurdus merula

Jankowiak

Cholewa

Wysocki

2018

Journal of Avian Biology

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Many studies of socially monogamous birds discuss the adaptive role of between‐season partner change, but only a handful of them refer to the benefits of pair fidelity in terms of increased survival. Moreover, there are no studies describing the benefits of within‐season mate retention. Our data relating to an urban population of European blackbirds Turdus merula enabled us to test the dependence of survival on pair faithfulness. Because blackbirds divorce within and between seasons, we were able to test the influence of pair faithfulness on their within‐ and between‐season survival and mate fidelity. For this purpose, we used a multievent capture–mark–recapture (MECMR) statistical model, which is based on recapture rates and different pair states (faithful to mate, paired with new partner, or dead). Our study indicated that between‐ and within‐season survival depends on pair states: pair‐bond duration increases survival to the next capture occasion in both sexes. We found that the pair‐bond duration to the current partner increased the chances of being with the same partner during the next breeding occasion, although we failed to find any within‐season pair‐bond influence for females. Our results showed sex differences in mating at the end of the season: females had a much smaller chance of breeding with the current new partner in the next year. This study has demonstrated that within‐ and between‐season survival is dependent on mate retention, and we discuss this in the context of how searching for a new partner could affect the birds’ survival.

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Section: Within-season Between-state Transitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Survival costs of within‐ and between‐season mate change in the European blackbirdTurdus merula

Jankowiak

Cholewa

Wysocki

2018

Journal of Avian Biology

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“…Males with two breeding attempts and high testosterone levels during the mating phase may be high-quality males that have been chosen by more experienced or high-quality females and together they may be more successful in raising a clutch (Baran and Adkins-Regan, 2014). High quality may be signaled to females through testosterone-mediated ornaments (Yang et al, 2013) or behavioral traits such as defense of a high-quality territory (Vitousek et al, 2008).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Variation in Circulating Testosterone during Mating Predicts Reproductive Success in a Wild Songbird

2016

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Testosterone is an important sex hormone and mediates reproduction in male vertebrates. There is ample evidence that testosterone coordinates the expression of physiological, morphological, and behavioral traits during reproduction and many of these traits are under sexual selection. However, only few studies so far have examined if individual variation in testosterone is correlated with reproductive success. Because socially monogamous bird species pass through different phases within a breeding cycle and each of these phases requires the expression of different behaviors, the relation between testosterone and reproductive success could vary with breeding stage. Here we investigate the link between reproductive success and testosterone in European stonechats-a socially monogamous songbird with biparental care. Previous studies found that territorial aggression in breeding stonechats depends on testosterone and that testosterone levels peak during the mating phase. Thus, high testosterone levels during mating may influence reproductive success by promoting territorial aggression and mate guarding. We found that males with two breeding attempts produced a similar number of fledglings as males with three breeding attempts. However, males with two breeding attempts expressed higher levels of testosterone than males with just one or those with three breeding attempts, regardless of whether testosterone was measured during the mating or the parental phase of the first brood. Furthermore, testosterone levels during mating, but not during parenting, correlated with the total annual number of fledglings. Thus, individual variation in levels of plasma testosterone predicted reproductive success in stonechats.

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“…Zebra finches are socially monogamous, but individuals may engage in alternative reproductive strategies like extra‐pair mating and intraspecific brood parasitism (Birkhead et al, ). EPP rates can vary from 2% in the wild (Birkhead et al, ; Griffith et al, ) to 10–30% in captivity (Burley, Parker, & Lundy, ; Forstmeier et al, ; Baran & Adkins‐Regan, ; Ihle et al, ).…”

Section: A Fine‐scale Social Perspective On Extra‐pair Paternitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Linking the fine‐scale social environment to mating decisions: a future direction for the study of extra‐pair paternity

et al. 2018

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Variation in extra-pair paternity (EPP) among individuals of the same population could result from stochastic demography or from individual differences in mating strategies. Although the adaptive value of EPP has been widely studied, much less is known about the characteristics of the social environment that drive the observed patterns of EPP. Here, we demonstrate how concepts and well-developed tools for the study of social behaviour (such as social network analysis) can enhance the study of extra-pair mating decisions (focussing in particular on avian mating systems). We present several hypotheses that describe how characteristics of the social environment in which individuals are embedded might influence the levels of EPP in a socially monogamous population. We use a multi-level social approach (Hinde, 1976) to achieve a detailed description of the social structure and social dynamics of individuals in a group. We propose that the pair-bond, the direct (local) social environment and the indirect (extended) social environment, can contribute in different ways to the variation observed in the patterns of EPP, at both the individual and the population level. A strength of this approach is that it integrates into the analysis (indirect) interactions with all potential mates in a population, thus extending the current framework to study extra-pair mating behaviour. We also encourage the application of social network methods such as temporal dynamic analysis to depict temporal changes in the patterns of interactions among individuals in a group, and to study how this affects mating behaviour. We argue that this new framework will contribute to a better understanding of the proximate mechanisms that drive variation in EPP within populations in socially monogamous species, and might ultimately provide insights into the evolution and maintenance of mating systems.

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Breeding Experience, Alternative Reproductive Strategies and Reproductive Success in a Captive Colony of Zebra Finches (Taeniopygia guttata)

Cited by 21 publications

References 57 publications

Survival costs of within‐ and between‐season mate change in the European blackbirdTurdus merula

Survival costs of within‐ and between‐season mate change in the European blackbirdTurdus merula

Variation in Circulating Testosterone during Mating Predicts Reproductive Success in a Wild Songbird

Linking the fine‐scale social environment to mating decisions: a future direction for the study of extra‐pair paternity

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