Cuckoldry as a cost of polyandry in
the sex-role reversedwattled jacana, Jacana jacana
Cuckoldry as a cost of polyandry in
the sex-role reversed
wattled jacana, Jacana jacana
Emlen, S.T., Wrege, P.H., and Webster, M.S. (1998). Proceedings of
the Royal Society of Londong, Series B: 265: 2359-2364.
In this paper we provide the first molecular genetic data on extra-pair
paternity in a simultaneously polyandrous, sex-role reversed avian species,
the wattled jacana (Jacana jacana). Female jacanas often copulated
with multiple mates, provided that the mates were not actively incubating
eggs or tending young chicks. Both the presence of multiple "available"
mates, and the copulation behavior of the female near the time of nest initiation,
significantly predicted the probability of extra-pair fertilizations. A
male's risk of being cuckolded was 0% in monandrous pairings, rose to 41%
of broods (17% of chicks) in polyandrous associations where an additional
mate was "available", and increased to 74% of broods (29% of chicks)
where the female was observed to copulate with multiple mates. Unlike findings
from several sequentially polyandrous bird species (Oring et al., 1992;
Owens et al., 1995; Birks, 1997; J. Dale, R. Montgomery, D. Michaud &
P. Boag, unpubl. ms), few if any fertilizations resulted from sperm stored
from a previous nesting. We conclude that lost paternity can constitute
a very real cost of polyandry for male wattled jacanas. The source of this
cost is sexually active males simultaneously paired to the same female.