Color ornaments and territory position in king penguins.
Behav Processes
; 119: 32-7, 2015 Oct.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-26168874
ABSTRACT
King penguins exhibit mutual color ornamentation of feathers and beak color. They breed in dense colonies and produce a single chick every 2 years. Thus, males and females must choose partners carefully to be reproductively successful, and auricular patches of males and UV coloration of beak spots have been shown to influence mate choice. Position in the breeding colony is also important to reproductive success, with pairs on the edge of the colony less successful than those in the center. We studied the mutual ornaments, individual condition, and position of pairs in their breeding colony. Males were significantly larger than females in size, body mass, and auricular patch size. Within pairs, auricular patch size of males and females were significantly correlated, and male auricular patch size and body mass were significantly associated, suggesting a link between this ornament and male body condition. Moving from the edge to the center of the colony, pairs had larger yellow-orange auricular patches, indicating a link between this ornament and settlement in higher quality territories in the center of the colony. Pairs were also less brightly brown colored on the breast and less saturated in UV color of the beak spot. Since we observed pairs that were settling for egg laying, location in the colony may have reflected aspects of pair condition, rather than later jockeying for positioning using ornaments as signals of behavioral dominance.
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Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Comportamento Sexual Animal
/
Spheniscidae
Tipo de estudo:
Observational_studies
Limite:
Animals
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2015
Tipo de documento:
Article