Multiple mating opportunities boost protandry in a pied flycatcher population
Protandry, the earlier arrival of males than females to breeding areas, is widespread in birds, but its underlying mechanisms are far from well understood. The two, not mutually exclusive most highly supported hypoth- eses to explain avian protandry postulate that it has evolved from intrasexual mal...
| Autores: | , , |
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| Tipo de documento: | artigo |
| Data de publicação: | 2012 |
| País: | España |
| Recursos: | Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) |
| Repositório: | DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:digital.csic.es:10261/49878 |
| Acesso em linha: | http://hdl.handle.net/10261/49878 |
| Access Level: | Acceso aberto |
| Palavra-chave: | Extra-pair paternity Ficedula hypoleuca Mate opportunity hypothesis Protandry Rank advantage hypothesis Social polygyny |
| Resumo: | Protandry, the earlier arrival of males than females to breeding areas, is widespread in birds, but its underlying mechanisms are far from well understood. The two, not mutually exclusive most highly supported hypoth- eses to explain avian protandry postulate that it has evolved from intrasexual male competition to acquire the best territories (“rank advantage” hypothesis) and/or to maxi- mize the number of mates (“mate opportunity” hypothesis). We studied for two consecutive years the relative impor- tance of both hypotheses in a population of pied flycatchers (Ficedula hypoleuca), a territorial songbird with a mixed mating strategy. We measured territory quality using a long- term dataset on nest occupation and breeding output, and we used molecular techniques to assess male fitness across the range of social and genetic mating options. Territory quality was unrelated to breeding date and had no influence on extra-pair paternity or social polygynous events. However, males breeding early increased their chances of becoming socially polygynous and/or of attaining extra-pair paternity and, as a consequence, increased their total reproductive success. These results support the “mate opportunity” hypothesis, suggesting that sexual selection is the main mechanism driving protandry in this population |
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