Imperial College London
Alternate

DrJuliaSchroeder

Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Life Sciences (Silwood Park)

Senior Lecturer
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 9086julia.schroeder

 
 
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Location

 

2.13MunroSilwood Park

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Girndt:2018:10.1038/s41598-018-26649-1,
author = {Girndt, A and Change, WT and Burke, T and Schroeder, J},
doi = {10.1038/s41598-018-26649-1},
journal = {Scientific Reports},
title = {Male age is associated with extra-pair paternity, but not with extra-pair mating behaviour},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-26649-1},
volume = {8},
year = {2018}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Extra-pair paternity is the result of copulation between a female and a male other than her social partner. In socially monogamous birds, old males are most likely to sire extra-pair offspring. The male manipulation and female choice hypotheses predict that age-specific male mating behaviour could explain this old-over-young male advantage. These hypotheses have been difficult to test because copulations and the individuals involved are hard to observe. Here, we studied the mating behaviour and pairing contexts of captive house sparrows, Passer domesticus. Our set-up mimicked the complex social environment experienced by wild house sparrows. We found that middle-aged males, which would be considered old in natural populations, gained most extra-pair paternity. However, both, female solicitation behaviour and subsequent extra-pair matings were not associated with male age. Further, copulations were more likely when solicited by females than when initiated by males (i.e. unsolicited copulations). Male initiated within-pair copulations were more common than male initiated extra-pair copulations. To conclude, our results did not support either hypothesis regarding age-specific male mating behaviour. Instead, female choice, independent of male age, governed copulation success, especially in an extra-pair context. Post-copulatory mechanisms might determine why older males sire more extra-pair offspring.
AU  - Girndt,A
AU  - Change,WT
AU  - Burke,T
AU  - Schroeder,J
DO  - 10.1038/s41598-018-26649-1
PY  - 2018///
SN  - 2045-2322
TI  - Male age is associated with extra-pair paternity, but not with extra-pair mating behaviour
T2  - Scientific Reports
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-26649-1
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/60033
VL  - 8
ER  -
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