Summary
The relationship between breeding time and fitness in the Arctic skua is described in terms of a fitness function estimated from the empirical data. There is no significant variation in the fitness function between pairs who have bred together for different numbers of years. Sexual selection takes place between the different colour phases of males, for among new pairs the pale-phased males breed later on average and with a greater variance in breeding time than the dark and intermediate males. The sexual selective coefficients were calculated from the fitness function using the distributions of breeding times of males in new pairs. Pale males have a relative disadvantage of 0·07 and intermediates a relative disadvantage of 0·03 compared to dark males. The overall selective coefficients calculated from the empirical values of the fitness of all pairs are 0·18 and 0·16 for pale and intermediate males respectively. There is no significant evidence for selection between different phases of females. Models of the mechanism of sexual selection by female mating preferences are fitted to the distributions of breeding time. About 50 per cent of females must exercise mating preferences to maintain the differences observed. The predictions of the models are discussed in relation to the data at present available.
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O'Donald, P., Wedd, N. & Davis, J. Mating preferences and sexual selection in the arctic skua. Heredity 33, 1–16 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1038/hdy.1974.60
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/hdy.1974.60
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