0000000000707278
AUTHOR
Roger Pradel
Sexual display complexity varies non-linearly with age and predicts breeding status in greater flamingos.
AbstractThe long-lived greater flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus) is famous for performing conspicuous group displays during which adults try to acquire a new mate each year with varying success. We examined variation in the sexual display complexity (SDC) of wild flamingos aged between 4 and 37 yrs. SDC was defined as the product of richness (the number of different display movements) and versatility (the number of transitions between movements) within a 5 min behavioral sequence. In both sexes, date in the pairing season had a linear and positive effect on SDC, whereas age had a quadratic effect, with SDC increasing until about age 20yrs, and declining afterwards. SDC better explained pairi…
Stabilizing natural selection on the early expression of a secondary sexual trait in a passerine bird
Natural selection is a central tenet of evolutionary theory, yet the estimation of the direction and intensity of selection remains problematic. Here, we assess the strength of selection on the early expression of a secondary sexual ornament, bill colour, in male European blackbirds (Turdus merula) using 5 years of capture-mark-recapture (CMR) data. The best-fitting model consisted of a quadratic relationship between survival rate and bill colour, indicating stabilizing natural selection on the early expression of a secondary sexual trait. There was no evidence for sexual selection acting on bill colour in the first year. We suggest that the consideration of early selection and the adoption…
Local Recruitment in the Greater Flamingo: A New Approach Using Capture- Mark-Recapture Data
International audience; Although the establishment of new individuals in the breeding component of a population is an essential feature of population regulation, only a few attempts have been made to test biological hypotheses about recruitment. Most previous studies rely on ad hoc calculations or are flawed with unwarranted assumptions about survival. We use a recently developed approach, based on capture-mark-recapture, in which analysis of local recruitment is similar to a time-reversed analysis of survival. The basic data set consists of capture histories viewed in reverse order, with initial capture at year of birth, and subsequent observations corresponding to years when the animal ha…
Sex- and age-related variation in survival and cost of first reproduction in Greater Flamingos
International audience; We analyzed survival of breeding Greater Flamingos, Phoenicopterus ruber roseus, using the capture histories of 2000 breeding birds ringed as chicks and resighted at their natal colony in the Camargue, southern France. As found in previous analyses, recapture probability varied according to year, sex, and age of the bird, and annual survival was strongly affected by winter severity. However, by using a much larger data set than in earlier analyses, we detected previously nonsignificant effects. Indeed, for the first time, sex and age of the bird were found to influence annual survival probability. We tested the hypothesis that the observed sex-related difference in s…