Authors: Kate L Durrant Jane M Hughes
Publish Date: 2005/01/13
Volume: 57, Issue: 6, Pages: 536-545
Abstract
Extrapair paternity EPP is a common feature of the mating systems of many birds The rate of EPP may vary between species races and populations A comparison of extragroup paternity EGP rates was made between two races of a groupliving passerine the Australian magpie Gymnorhina tibicen to determine if similar mating systems were being employed The two populations had similar social structure but differed in group size and dispersal It was predicted that dispersal differences would have a profound effect on the rate of EGP between the populations as the population with the lower rate of dispersal and higher chance of breeding with a close relative would engage in EGPs more frequently Eight microsatellite loci were used to determine parentage in the whitebacked Australian magpie G t tyrannica The rate of EGP was found to be 44 Dispersal rates were estimated from observational data Over half of the juvenile magpie cohort from the previous breeding season left the territorial group These results contrast sharply with the results found by other researchers in a population of western Australian magpies G t dorsalis In this population 82 EGP is recorded and dispersal of juveniles is close to nil The results indicate that dispersal rate is a potentially important predictor of rates of extragroup fertilisations between populations of this species and suggest that females maximise their reproductive output by avoiding breeding with close kinField assistance was ably provided by Graham Durrant Chris Hepper and Alicia Toon Thank you to the Manly and Lord families for allowing access to their land Thanks also to Jing Ma Jill Shephard and Alicia Toon for guidance in the laboratory Mark Ponniah and an anonymous reviewer gave helpful comments on this manuscript KLD was supported by an Australian Postgraduate Award Trapping was undertaken with permission from the Department of Natural Resources Victoria banding was carried out under license from the Australian Bird and Bat Banding Scheme and the Griffith University Ethics Committee approved the study
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