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Genetic monogamy despite frequent extrapair copulations in “strictly monogamous” wild jackdaws

“Monogamy” refers to different components of pair exclusiveness: the social pair, sexual partners, and the genetic outcome of sexual encounters. Avian monogamy is usually defined socially or genetically, whereas quantifications of sexual behavior remain scarce. Jackdaws (Corvus monedula) are conside...

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Autores principales: Gill, Lisa F, van Schaik, Jaap, von Bayern, Auguste M P, Gahr, Manfred L
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7191249/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32372855
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arz185
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author Gill, Lisa F
van Schaik, Jaap
von Bayern, Auguste M P
Gahr, Manfred L
author_facet Gill, Lisa F
van Schaik, Jaap
von Bayern, Auguste M P
Gahr, Manfred L
author_sort Gill, Lisa F
collection PubMed
description “Monogamy” refers to different components of pair exclusiveness: the social pair, sexual partners, and the genetic outcome of sexual encounters. Avian monogamy is usually defined socially or genetically, whereas quantifications of sexual behavior remain scarce. Jackdaws (Corvus monedula) are considered a rare example of strict monogamy in songbirds, with lifelong pair bonds and little genetic evidence for extrapair (EP) offspring. Yet jackdaw copulations, although accompanied by loud copulation calls, are rarely observed because they occur visually concealed inside nest cavities. Using full-day nest-box video surveillance and on-bird acoustic bio-logging, we directly observed jackdaw sexual behavior and compared it to the corresponding genetic outcome obtained via molecular parentage analysis. In the video-observed nests, we found genetic monogamy but frequently detected forced EP sexual behavior, accompanied by characteristic male copulation calls. We, thus, challenge the long-held notion of strict jackdaw monogamy at the sexual level. Our data suggest that male mate guarding and frequent intrapair copulations during the female fertile phase, as well as the forced nature of the copulations, could explain the absence of EP offspring. Because EP copulation behavior appeared to be costly for both sexes, we suggest that immediate fitness benefits are an unlikely explanation for its prevalence. Instead, sexual conflict and dominance effects could interact to shape the spatiotemporal pattern of EP sexual behavior in this species. Our results call for larger-scale investigations of jackdaw sexual behavior and parentage and highlight the importance of combining social, sexual, and genetic data sets for a more complete understanding of mating systems.
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spelling pubmed-71912492020-05-05 Genetic monogamy despite frequent extrapair copulations in “strictly monogamous” wild jackdaws Gill, Lisa F van Schaik, Jaap von Bayern, Auguste M P Gahr, Manfred L Behav Ecol Original Articles “Monogamy” refers to different components of pair exclusiveness: the social pair, sexual partners, and the genetic outcome of sexual encounters. Avian monogamy is usually defined socially or genetically, whereas quantifications of sexual behavior remain scarce. Jackdaws (Corvus monedula) are considered a rare example of strict monogamy in songbirds, with lifelong pair bonds and little genetic evidence for extrapair (EP) offspring. Yet jackdaw copulations, although accompanied by loud copulation calls, are rarely observed because they occur visually concealed inside nest cavities. Using full-day nest-box video surveillance and on-bird acoustic bio-logging, we directly observed jackdaw sexual behavior and compared it to the corresponding genetic outcome obtained via molecular parentage analysis. In the video-observed nests, we found genetic monogamy but frequently detected forced EP sexual behavior, accompanied by characteristic male copulation calls. We, thus, challenge the long-held notion of strict jackdaw monogamy at the sexual level. Our data suggest that male mate guarding and frequent intrapair copulations during the female fertile phase, as well as the forced nature of the copulations, could explain the absence of EP offspring. Because EP copulation behavior appeared to be costly for both sexes, we suggest that immediate fitness benefits are an unlikely explanation for its prevalence. Instead, sexual conflict and dominance effects could interact to shape the spatiotemporal pattern of EP sexual behavior in this species. Our results call for larger-scale investigations of jackdaw sexual behavior and parentage and highlight the importance of combining social, sexual, and genetic data sets for a more complete understanding of mating systems. Oxford University Press 2020 2019-11-22 /pmc/articles/PMC7191249/ /pubmed/32372855 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arz185 Text en © The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Articles
Gill, Lisa F
van Schaik, Jaap
von Bayern, Auguste M P
Gahr, Manfred L
Genetic monogamy despite frequent extrapair copulations in “strictly monogamous” wild jackdaws
title Genetic monogamy despite frequent extrapair copulations in “strictly monogamous” wild jackdaws
title_full Genetic monogamy despite frequent extrapair copulations in “strictly monogamous” wild jackdaws
title_fullStr Genetic monogamy despite frequent extrapair copulations in “strictly monogamous” wild jackdaws
title_full_unstemmed Genetic monogamy despite frequent extrapair copulations in “strictly monogamous” wild jackdaws
title_short Genetic monogamy despite frequent extrapair copulations in “strictly monogamous” wild jackdaws
title_sort genetic monogamy despite frequent extrapair copulations in “strictly monogamous” wild jackdaws
topic Original Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7191249/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32372855
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arz185
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