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Portrait of Henrik Smith. Photo.

Henrik Smith

Professor

Portrait of Henrik Smith. Photo.

Sperm competition in the European starling (Sturnus vulgaris): An experimental study of mate switching

Author

  • Henrik Smith
  • Liv Wennerberg
  • Torbjörn von Schantz

Summary, in English

In apparently monogamous or polygynous birds, sperm from several males may compete to fertilize the eggs laid by one female. In this study we evaluate sperm competition in the European starling (Sturnus vulgaris) by means of a mate-switching experiment. Already-mated males were removed between 1-7 d before their mates started egg-laying, resulting in the female remating with a new male. The original males' parentage in the subsequent clutches was evaluated using DNA-fingerprinting. The original males fathered only two out of 46 eggs of those which were not likely to have been fertilized already when the males were removed. The low success of the original males can be attributed to a high within-pair copulation frequency during the assumed fertile period before laying and throughout the laying period, resulting in replacement males fathering most offspring. Thus the success of extra-pair copulations more than 2 d before egg-laying is probably very low. The results are discussed in relation to contrasting results from other mate-switching studies.

Department/s

  • MEMEG
  • Biodiversity
  • Department of Biology
  • Molecular Ecology and Evolution Lab

Publishing year

1996

Language

English

Pages

797-801

Publication/Series

Royal Society of London. Proceedings B. Biological Sciences

Volume

263

Issue

1371

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Royal Society Publishing

Topic

  • Biological Sciences
  • Ecology

Keywords

  • frequency
  • extra-pair paternity
  • intraspecific brood parasitism
  • female control
  • dna
  • zebra finch
  • birds
  • copulation
  • cuckoldry

Status

Published

Research group

  • Molecular Ecology and Evolution Lab

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1471-2954