CONTENT - International Society of Zoological Sciences

S17 ICZ2008 - Abstracts
Reproductive behavioral plasticity in Père David’s deer
Zhigang Jiang 1,2 , Yan Zeng 1,2 , Zhenyu Zhong 3 , Chunwang Li 1 and
Linyuan Zhang 3
1
Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology,
Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing,
100101, China.
2
Graduated School of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing,
China 100049, China.
3
Beijing Père David’s Deer Park
Père David’s deer is a polygamous species; one to several stags
rut at the same time, a “Harem master” defends the receptive
female herd and tries to monopolize the opportunity of mating.
However, reproductive behavior in Père David’s deer is highly
plastic. First, the males have different rut tactics: “Harem master
tactic”, “Challenger tactic” and “Bachelor tactic”, rut season is
extended for a long period, e.g. rut lasts as long as two months in
the Beijing Père David deer population. Thus, the time to
commence rut is plastic in stags. Female “estrus window”, which is
composed of the individual females in estrus, drifts among years.
That means unknown factor controls the estrus in the females, or
females are able to adjust their estrus. We conducted a study on
the reproductive behavior of Père David’s deer from 1994 to 2005.
We observed the behaviors of males and females and used five
polymorphic microstatellite loci which were screened out from 84
pairs of species-transferred primers to study the mating system in
the reintroduced Père David’s deer populations in China. The
study identified multi stags sired offspring in the population.
“Harem masters” could not monopolize breeding opportunities,
Challengers also had chance to breed. While the plasticity in
female estrus window presumably is related to female cryptic sex
choice, on the other hand, to be a “Harem master” is not the “The
winner takes all” tactics. The multi-paternity in Père David’s deer
indicates the rut tactics like “Challenger tactic” has its evolutionary
fitness as well.
Relationships between morphological traits, behavioural
characteristics, and habitat selection in Iranian Wheatears
using Fourth-Corner Problem analysis
Mohammad Kaboli 1 , Mansour Aliabadian 2 , Saina Habibi 1 , Parisa
Mehrandish 1 and Roger Prodon 3
1
Department of Fishery and Environment, Faculty of Natural
Resources, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
2
Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Ferdowsi University of
Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
3
Laboratoire Ecologie et Biogéographie des Vertébrés (EPHE),
Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive, UMR 5175, 1919
route de Mende, 34293 Montpellier cedex 5, France
Ecological segregation in the Wheatear genus Oenanthe is a
complex and intriguing question. Here we studied habitat variables,
behavioural characteristics and morphological traits of 11
Wheatear species that are distributed sympartrically in Iran. We
recorded 19 behavioural characteristics and measured 36 habitat
variables within a 100-m radius around observed birds. We also
measured 21 biometrical variables in each species. We compared
variable-to-variable correlation between these three data matrices
using Legendre et al.’s Fourth-Corner Problem method. We first
related, through the matrix A1 (presence/absence of species in
sampling sites), the morphological traits of the species (mean
values of the variables for each species; matrix Cmorphology) to the
habitat features measured on each sampling site (matrix Bhabitat).
We then related, through A1, the behavioural traits of the species
(mean values of the variables for each species; matrix Cbehaviour) to
the habitat features measured on each sampling site (matrix
Bhabitat). We lastly related, through A2, the morphological traits of
the species (matrix Cmorphology) to the behavioural variables
measured, on each sampling site, on the "principal" species of
Wheatears of the site (matrix Bbehaviour). Our results showed that
morphological traits, particularly flight and foot-leg apparatuses,
represent a good synthesis of overall behaviour traits. Since
Morphological traits result from compromise between different
selection pressures like foraging mode and migration pattern,
seems plays an important role in determining the ecological range
of a species. Likewise, habitat features are also correlated with
behavioural traits, but less tightly.
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This correlation between behaviour and habitat could be explained
by this fact that many behavioural variables are defined on the
habitat-basis (e.g. types of perch used). But the proportion of
significant relationships between habitat and behaviour remains
the same when we consider only the "purely" behavioural variables
(type, speed, and frequency of movements). Finally, The match
between morphology and habitat is relatively loose that may partly
be due to the fact that habitat variables are more likely depend on
proximal factors, especially the sampling conditions (e.g., unequal
frequency of different landscape features in different sampling
areas, random component of the detection of the species).
Control of copula duration: how males and females control
sperm transfer
Joshka Kaufmann, Jean-François Le Galliard and David Laloi
Laboratoire Ecologie & Evolution - UMR 7625, Université Pierre et
Marie Curie / ENS / AgroParisTech / CNRS, Paris, France
In polygynandrous mating systems, sexual conflict can arise on the
number of partners and on the reproductive investment of each
sex. Particularly, traits that control sperm transfer can have quite
different optima with regard to female and male fitness. Indeed,
female behaviour may have evolved to ensure fertilization, favour
preferred male through longer copulation or promote postcopulatory
mate choice. Males may strategically allocate their
sperm according to female reproductive quality, level of sperm
competition and further mating opportunities. Behavioural
mechanisms have been poorly studied in taxa, such as reptiles,
where sperm transfer is driven by copula duration rather than by
the number of copulations. In the present study, we investigate in
the common lizard whether males and females control copula
duration. In a sequential mating context, we study how mate
choice and copulatory behaviours vary with individual quality (e.g.
coloration, social dominance, fitness-related physical
performances) and mating history. We principally disentangle the
respective role of both sexes in this conflict for sperm transfer.
Both sexes become more choosy in second mating opportunities,
female preference being based on male ventral coloration while
males prefer virgin females. Our results show that females control
copula duration and hence sperm transfer and may therefore bias
paternity. Nevertheless, no evidence was found that females
favour high-quality males through longer copulation. Here, we
suggest that female lizards may use both pre-copulatory mate
choice and control of copula duration to maximize the genetic
benefits of multiple mating.
Is discrimination of song quality by shortened-wings female
Canaries (Serinus canaria) reduced ?
Alexandre Lerch and Laurent Nagle
Laboratory of Ethology and Comparative Cognition, Université de
Paris X-Nanterre ; Bat BSL, 1er étage; 200, avenue de la
République, 92 000, Nanterre cedex 01, France
Because of their greater investment in reproduction, females are
supposed to be choosier than males when mating (Trivers, 1972).
While numerous studies investigated this aspect of mate choice,
most of them have focused on male traits that maintain female
preferences (Jennion & Petrie, 1997).
Nevertheless, consensus between females in the selection of male
phenotypic features is not the rule, and more subtle mechanisms
take place. Indeed, variations in female preferences do exist,
especially in some contexts of predation (Simcox et al., 2005) or
costly competition (Fawcett and Johnstone, 2003). In birds, a case
of reduced discrimination for male coloration has been reported in
female zebra Finches with shortened wings (Burley & Foster,
2006).
In canaries (Serinus canaria), song is known to be the main
secondary sexual feature, and a special phrase (« A » phrase) is
reported to elicit a high level of sexual responses by females
(Vallet et al., 1998). In our study, we investigate the power of
discrimination toward songs of different quality, in a group of
female canaries tested in two conditions: 1) with intact wings
(control group) and 2) with cut wings. Our preliminary results
suggest that birds with shortened wings show a weaker preference
toward high quality songs.