The secret sex lives of sage-grouse: multiple paternity and intraspecific nest parasitism revealed through genetic analysis

Bird, Krista L.; Aldridge, Cameron L.; Carpenter, Jennifer E.; Paszkowski, Cynthia A.; Boyce, Mark S.; Coltman, David W.

doi:10.1093/beheco/ars132

Cited by 25 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 75 publications

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“…Second, males may have engaged in off-lek mating strategies and sought copulations with females away from breeding leks. Such strategies have been suggested for sage-grouse based on anecdotal observations and genetic evidence (Semple et al 2001, Bird et al 2012, and are also observed in other species with lekbased mating systems (e.g., Lanctot et al 1997). However, off-lek copulations are difficult to observe directly in sagegrouse, and prior studies have not fully accounted for imperfect detection of males on leks, or unknown leks within study systems.…”

Section: Yrmentioning

confidence: 86%

Annual male lek attendance influences count-based population indices of greater sage-grouse

et al. 2013

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Populations of greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) are monitored using counts of males displaying on breeding leks (lek counts). When count-based indices are used to assess population growth (l), an implicit assumption is that detection is constant through time and space. If detection depends on breeding behavior, annual variation in the proportion of individuals that attend a breeding site may lead to a violation of this assumption. We used 8 years of banding data from male sage-grouse in eastern Nevada and capture-mark-recapture analyses to evaluate how temporary absence of males from lek sites during a given year may influence estimates of population trends derived from lek counts. We estimated the proportion of variance in annual lek count trends that corresponded with an independent estimate of l, versus variance associated with temporary absence. The probability a male sage-grouse attended 1 of our study leks at least once in a given year ranged from a low of 0.56 (AE0.22 SE) to a high of 0.87 (AE0.11 SE). Variance in annual lek count trends was associated with both realized l (semipartial R 2 ¼ 0.57), and sampling error associated with temporary absence (semipartial R 2 ¼ 0.40). We found discrepancies between lek count and realized l in 3 out of 7 intervals, whereas estimates of l for the entire study interval were extremely similar between countbased and capture-mark-recapture methods (l ¼ 0.90 AE 0.05 SE and l ¼ 0.91 AE 0.05 SE, respectively). Temporary absence was influenced by male density during the previous year and associated with exotic grasslands surrounding leks, although some uncertainty was associated with this latter effect. Lek counts are well suited for estimating l across multi-year intervals, whereas annual estimates of l should be viewed cautiously if variation in annual lek attendance is not directly incorporated. Ó 2013 The Wildlife Society.

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Section: Yrmentioning

confidence: 86%

Annual male lek attendance influences count-based population indices of greater sage-grouse

et al. 2013

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“…Only research from our study system has provided support that male Sagegrouse may skip breeding in a given year (Blomberg et al 2013a). Lastly, the possibility of an offlek breeding strategy in Sage-grouse has been suggested (Semple et al 2001, Bird et al 2013, but this strategy is difficult to observe directly (Blomberg et al 2013a). The mechanisms for temporary absence of males at breeding leks remain enigmatic; however, our results suggest observed absence of marked males is not likely to be driven by inter-lek movements.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Lek fidelity and movement among leks by male Greater Sage‐grouseCentrocercus urophasianus: a capture‐mark‐recapture approach

Gibson

Blomberg

Atamian

et al. 2014

Ibis

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Males in lek mating systems tend to exhibit high fidelity to breeding leks despite substantial evidence of skewed mating success among males. Although movements between leks are often reported to be rare, such movements provide a mechanism for an individual to improve lifetime fitness in response to heterogeneity in reproductive conditions. Additionally, estimates of apparent movements among leks are potentially biased due to unaccounted variation in detection probability across time and space. We monitored breeding male Greater Sage‐grouse Centrocercus urophasianus on 13 leks in eastern Nevada over a 10‐year period, and estimated movement rates among leks using capture‐mark‐recapture methods. We expected that male movement rates among leks would be low, despite predictions of low breeding success for most males, and that detection rates would be highly variable among leks and years. We used a robust design multistate analysis in Program mark to estimate probability of movements among leks, while accounting for imperfect detection of males. Male Sage‐grouse were extremely faithful to their leks; the annual probability of a male moving away from its original lek of capture was approximately 3% (se = 0.01). Detection probabilities varied substantially among leks (range = 0.21–0.95), and among years (range = 0.30–0.76), but remained relatively constant within years at each lek. These results suggest that male Sage‐grouse dispersal is either rare, or consists primarily of dispersal of sub‐adults from their natal areas prior to the breeding season. The study highlights the benefits of robust design multistate models over standard ‘live‐encounter’ analyses, as they not only permit estimation of additional parameters, such as movement rates, but also allow for more precise parameter estimates that are less sensitive to heterogeneity in detection rates. Additionally, as these data were collected using capture‐mark‐recapture methods, our approach to estimating movement rates would be beneficial in systems where radiotagging is detrimental to the study organism.

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“…Under ideal conditions, DNA samples from each juvenile and its putative parents would be available for analysis to confirm parent-offspring relationships (Gullberg et al 1992, Bird et al 2013 and ensure that extrapair paternities or misidentified parents were not confounding the pedigrees that were reconstructed for each individual. In our study, blood or tissue samples were not collected to allow for formal evaluation of this phenomenon using molecular genetic techniques.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Variation in inbreeding rates across the range of Northern Spotted Owls (Strix occidentalis caurina): Insights from over 30 years of monitoring data

Miller

Haig

Forsman

et al. 2018

The Auk

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The secret sex lives of sage-grouse: multiple paternity and intraspecific nest parasitism revealed through genetic analysis

Cited by 25 publications

References 75 publications

Annual male lek attendance influences count-based population indices of greater sage-grouse

Annual male lek attendance influences count-based population indices of greater sage-grouse

Lek fidelity and movement among leks by male Greater Sage‐grouseCentrocercus urophasianus: a capture‐mark‐recapture approach

Variation in inbreeding rates across the range of Northern Spotted Owls (Strix occidentalis caurina): Insights from over 30 years of monitoring data

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