Higher reproductive success of small males and greater recruitment of large females could explain the strong reversed sexual dimorphism (RSD) in the northern goshawk
Abstract Reversed sexual dimorphism (RSD), whichoccurs when the female of a species is larger than the male,is the rule for most birds of prey but the exception amongother bird and mammal species. The selective pressuresthat favour RSD are an intriguing issue in animal ecology.Despite the large numb...
| Autores: | , , , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2015 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universidad de Alcalá (UAH) |
| Repositorio: | e_Buah Biblioteca Digital Universidad de Alcalá |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:ebuah.uah.es:10017/40846 |
| Acceso en línea: | http://hdl.handle.net/10017/40846 https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00442-014-3146-9 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Accipiter gentilis Bird of prey Body size Evolution Raptor Environmental science Medio Ambiente |
| Sumario: | Abstract Reversed sexual dimorphism (RSD), whichoccurs when the female of a species is larger than the male,is the rule for most birds of prey but the exception amongother bird and mammal species. The selective pressuresthat favour RSD are an intriguing issue in animal ecology.Despite the large number of hypotheses proposed to explainthe evolution of RSD, there is still no consensus about themechanisms involved and whether they act on one or bothsexes, mainly because few intrapopulation studies havebeen undertaken and few raptor species have been investigated.Using the strongly size-dimorphic northern goshawk(Accipiter gentilis L.) as a model, we studied a populationwith one of the highest densities of breeding pairs reportedin the literature in order to understand selective pressuresthat may favour RSD. We evaluated life-history processes,including recruitment of adult breeders and reproductivesuccess, and we explored the mechanisms thought to act oneach sex, including hunting efficiency, diet, body conditionand mate choice. We found that smaller males producedmore fledglings than larger ones, but there was no relationshipbetween size and reproductive success for females |
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