High fidelity: extra‐pair fertilisations in eight Charadrius plover species are not associated with parental relatedness or social mating system |
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| Authors: | Kathryn H. Maher Luke J. Eberhart‐Phillips András Kosztolányi Natalie dos Remedios María Cristina Carmona‐Isunza Medardo Cruz‐López Sama Zefania James J. H. St Clair Monif Alrashidi Michael A. Weston Martín A. Serrano‐Meneses Oliver Krüger Joseph I. Hoffman Tamás Székely Terry Burke Clemens Küpper |
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| Affiliation: | 1. http://orcid.org/0000‐0003‐1746‐3119;2. Dept of Animal and Plant Sciences, Univ. of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK;3. Milner Centre for Evolution, Dept of Biology and Biochemistry, Univ. of Bath, Bath, UK;4. Inst. of Zoology, Univ. of Graz, Austria;5. Dept of Animal Behaviour, Bielefeld Univ., Bielefeld, Germany;6. Dept of Ecology, Univ. of Veterinary Medicine Budapest, Budapest, Hungary;7. MTA‐DE ‘Lendület’ Behavioural Ecology Research Group, Dept of Evolutionary Zoology, Univ. of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary;8. Posgrado en Ciencias del Mar y Limnología, Univ. Nacional Autónoma de México, Unidad Académica Mazatlán, Mazatlán, Sinaloa, México;9. Inst. Supérieur de technologie de Menabe Morondava, Faculty of Sciences, Univ. of Toliara, Madagascar;10. Centre for Evolutionary Biology, Univ. of Western Australia, WA, Australia;11. Dept of Biology, Faculty of Science, Univ. of Ha'il, Ha'il, Saudi Arabia;12. Deakin Univ., Geelong, Australia and Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science, Engineering and the Built Environment, Deakin Univ., VIC, Australia;13. Laboratorio de Biología Evolutiva, Centro Tlaxcala de Biología de la Conducta, Univ. Autónoma de Tlaxcala, Tlaxcala, México;14. Depto de Ciencias Químico‐Biológicas, Univ. de las Américas‐Puebla, Puebla, México;15. Max Planck Inst. for Ornithology, Seewiesen, Germany |
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| Abstract: | Extra‐pair paternity is a common reproductive strategy in many bird species. However, it remains unclear why extra‐pair paternity occurs and why it varies among species and populations. Plovers (Charadrius spp.) exhibit considerable variation in reproductive behaviour and ecology, making them excellent models to investigate the evolution of social and genetic mating systems. We investigated inter‐ and intra‐specific patterns of extra‐pair parentage and evaluated three major hypotheses explaining extra‐pair paternity using a comparative approach based on the microsatellite genotypes of 2049 individuals from 510 plover families sampled from twelve populations that constituted eight species. Extra‐pair paternity rates were very low (0 to 4.1% of chicks per population). No evidence was found in support of the sexual conflict or genetic compatibility hypotheses, and there was no seasonal pattern of extra‐pair paternity (EPP). The low prevalence of EPP is consistent with a number of alternative hypotheses, including the parental investment hypothesis, which suggests that high contribution to care by males restricts female plovers from engaging in extra‐pair copulations. Further studies are needed to critically test the importance of this hypothesis for mate choice in plovers. |
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