Passerine extrapair mating dynamics: a bayesian modeling approach comparing four species.
In many socially monogamous animals, females engage in extrapair copulation (EPC), causing some broods to contain both within-pair and extrapair young (EPY). The proportion of all young that are EPY varies across populations and species. Because an EPC that does not result in EPY leaves no forensic trace, this variation in the proportion of EPY reflects both variation in the tendency to engage in EPC and variation in the extrapair fertilization (EPF) process across populations and species. We analyzed data on the distribution of EPY in broods of four passerines (blue tit, great tit, collared flycatcher, and pied flycatcher), with 18,564 genotyped nestlings from 2,346 broods in two to nine populations per species. Our Bayesian modeling approach estimated the underlying probability function of EPC (assumed to be a Poisson function) and conditional binomial EPF probability. We used an information theoretical approach to show that the expected distribution of EPC per female varies across populations but that EPF probabilities vary on the above-species level (tits vs. flycatchers). Hence, for these four passerines, our model suggests that the probability of an EPC mainly is determined by ecological (population-specific) conditions, whereas EPF probabilities reflect processes that are fixed above the species level.
Brommer
Jon E
JE
Department of Biosciences, University of Helsinki, FIN-00014 Helsinki, Finland. jon.brommer@helsinki.fi
Alho
Jussi S
JS
Biard
Clotilde
C
Chapman
Joanne R
JR
Charmantier
Anne
A
Dreiss
Amelie
A
Hartley
Ian R
IR
Hjernquist
Mårten B
MB
Kempenaers
Bart
B
Komdeur
Jan
J
Laaksonen
Toni
T
Lehtonen
Paula K
PK
Lubjuhn
Thomas
T
Patrick
Samantha C
SC
Rosivall
Balázs
B
Tinbergen
Joost M
JM
van der Velde
Marco
M
van Oers
Kees
K
Wilk
Tomasz
T
Winkel
Wolfgang
W
D000818:Animals; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D008297:Male; D046109:Passeriformes / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D011157:Population Dynamics; D012726:Sexual Behavior, Animal; D013045:Species Specificity