Partner retention as a mechanism to reduce sexual conflict over care in a seabird

Bebbington, Kat; Groothuis, Ton G. G.

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2022.12.009

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 72 publications

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“…Although we can currently only speculate about the mechanisms underlying these long‐lasting effects, we suggest that organizational effects of maternal hormones may have a strong role to play. In both house sparrows ( Passer domesticus ) and rock pigeons ( Columba livia ), expression of increased dominance and aggression in adults hatched from eggs with elevated testosterone have been suggested to arise through organizational changes to brain structure and function (Hsu et al, 2016; Partecke & Schwabl, 2008); given the complex and nuanced nature of black‐headed gull mate choice and courtship displays (Bebbington & Groothuis, 2022), it is possible that differential development of brain tissue in last‐laid eggs is responsible for their reduced ability to secure a mate.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Position in the laying order has sex-specific consequences for reproductive success in adult black-headed gulls

Bebbington

Groothuis

2023

Journal of Evolutionary Biology

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Mothers who produce multiple offspring within one reproductive attempt often allocate resources differentially; some maternally derived substances are preferentially allocated to last‐produced offspring and others to first‐produced offspring. The combined effect of these different allocation regimes on the overall fitness of offspring produced early or late in the sequence is not well understood, partly because production order is often coupled with birth order, making it difficult‐to‐separate effects of pre‐natal maternal allocation from those of post‐natal social environments. In addition, very little is known about the influence of laying order on fitness in later life. In this study, we used a semi‐natural captive colony of black‐headed gulls to test whether an offspring's position in the laying order affected its early‐life survival and later‐life reproductive success, independent of its hatching order. Later‐laid eggs were less likely to hatch, but among those that did, survival to adulthood was greater than that of first‐laid eggs. In adulthood, the laying order of females did not affect their likelihood of breeding in the colony, but male offspring hatched from last‐laid eggs were significantly less likely to gain a breeding position than earlier‐laid males. In contrast, later‐laid female parents hatched lower proportions of their clutches than first‐laid females, but hatching success was unrelated to the laying order of male parents. Our results indicate that gull mothers induce complex and sex‐specific effects on both the early survival of their offspring and on long‐term reproductive success through laying order effects among eggs of the same breeding attempt.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…given the complex and nuanced nature of black-headed gull mate choice and courtship displays (Bebbington & Groothuis, 2022), it is possible that differential development of brain tissue in last-laid eggs is responsible for their reduced ability to secure a mate.…”

Section: F I G U R Ementioning

confidence: 99%

Position in the laying order has sex-specific consequences for reproductive success in adult black-headed gulls

Bebbington

Groothuis

2023

Journal of Evolutionary Biology

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“…Instead, selection should favour mechanisms that encourage equal effort, which may require coordination of behaviour (Johnstone & Savage, 2019). Mate choice is therefore a critical decision, as choosing a behaviourally compatible partner may help resolve sexual conflict and have long‐term implications for the quality of the pair's parental care (Bebbington & Groothuis, 2023; Munson et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Links between personality, reproductive success and re‐pairing patterns in a long‐lived seabird

McCully,

Descamps,

Harris

et al. 2023

Ethology

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In long‐lived monogamous species, the trigger of costly re‐pairing is not always clear. Limited research suggests that within‐pair behavioural compatibility may be an important driver of partnership success, as cooperation should be enhanced when pair members' decisions complement one another. Animals' decision‐making processes are influenced by personality traits – defined as individual differences in behaviour that are stable in time. Despite the potential for the personality trait ‘boldness’ to (a) directly impact individual willingness to re‐pair and (b) indirectly impact re‐pairing choices via reproductive success, there is currently little work exploring how re‐pairing decisions might be impacted by the pair members' personalities. Using a 13‐year dataset, we investigated whether within‐pair boldness and its relationship with breeding success explained re‐pairing patterns of black‐legged kittiwakes (Rissa tridactyla), breeding in two Arctic colonies. We found that pairs with dissimilar boldness levels were more likely to experience breeding failure and that failed pairs were more likely to re‐pair the following year. Despite this, only one colony displayed evidence of assortative mating by boldness, and there was no indication that re‐pairing impacted reproductive success the following season. Neither individual nor pair boldness directly influenced re‐pairing probability; however, in both colonies, re‐pairing birds chose partners that were slightly more similar to themselves in boldness than their previous mates. These results imply an indirect pathway by which poorer behavioural compatibility within pairs may lead to breeding failure and ultimately re‐pairing. Our findings highlight the importance of behavioural compatibility, and possibly personality, in mitigating sexual conflict and its population‐specific drivers.

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Thick-billed Murres in breeding pairs migrate and overwinter far apart but in similar photic environments

Huffeldt,

Ballesteros,

Helm

et al. 2024

J Ornithol

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Scheduling between mates in species with long-term pair bonds can be essential for positive fitness. The annual cycle in photoperiod is the primary environmental cue used by many animals to synchronize behavior and physiology among members of a population, and animals that migrate must have similar annual schedules to ensure successful breeding. However, we know little about whether members of mated pairs in migratory species experience similar photic environments across the year, which could allow for synchronization in annual phenology. Here, we used light-based geolocation to estimate positions of mated pairs of Thick-billed Murres (Uria lomvia, a seabird a.k.a. Brünnich’s Guillemot) which bred above the northern polar circle in Greenland. We tested the hypothesis that individuals in mated pairs occur in more similar locations and photic environments than randomly matched females and males. We found no difference in the amount of spatial separation or in the photic environment between mates and randomized heterosexual pairings. In general, the distance between females and males ranged from 1,198.5 km during August to 737.4 km during January. The sexes remained in photic environments with highly correlated photoperiods and moderately correlated times of solar noon in UTC. The spatial separation of, but similar photic environments experienced by, female and male murres regardless of pair status is probably adaptive by facilitating the synchronization of annual schedules between sexes, while allowing individuals in mated pairs the freedom to pursue the best foraging opportunities during migration and overwintering independent of their mate.

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Partner retention as a mechanism to reduce sexual conflict over care in a seabird

Cited by 5 publications

References 72 publications

Position in the laying order has sex-specific consequences for reproductive success in adult black-headed gulls

Position in the laying order has sex-specific consequences for reproductive success in adult black-headed gulls

Links between personality, reproductive success and re‐pairing patterns in a long‐lived seabird

Thick-billed Murres in breeding pairs migrate and overwinter far apart but in similar photic environments

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