Skip Navigation

This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow Lay Summary
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (8)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Václav, R.
Right arrow Articles by Blomqvist, D.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by Václav, R.
Right arrow Articles by Blomqvist, D.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Behavioral Ecology Vol. 14 No. 5: 730-735
© 2003 International Society for Behavioral Ecology

Food supplementation affects extrapair paternity in house sparrows (Passer domesticus)

Radovan Václava,b,, Herbert Hoib and Donald Blomqvistb

a Institute of Zoology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dúbravská cesta 9, SK-84206 Bratislava, Slovakia b Konrad Lorenz Institute for Comparative Ethology, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Savoyenstrasse 1a, A-1160 Vienna, Austria

Address correspondence to R. Václav, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dúbravská cesta 9, SK-84206 Bratislava, Slovakia. E-mail: uzaevacl{at}savba.sk.

Extrapair paternity (EPP) is common among birds, but the reasons why it varies within and among species are less clear. In particular, few studies have experimentally examined how food availability influences paternity and sexual behavior. We manipulated food supply in a nest-box population of house sparrows, Passer domesticus, a colonial passerine with extensive biparental care. During three successive breeding attempts, we changed food availability at nest sites and examined behavior and genetic parentage. DNA fingerprinting revealed that the level of EPP within broods was five times lower in pairs nesting at sites continuously supplied with extra food. With extra food, mates spent longer time together at the nest, but this was mainly due to a change in female behavior; females but not males increased total nest attendance. Moreover, we found that individual males did not change within-pair copulation frequency across treatments, suggesting that our experiment did not influence male control over fertilizations through copulation behavior. Instead, our study shows that ecological factors can have a strong influence on the time budgets of males and females, which consequently affects the occurrence of EPP.

Key words: extrapair paternity, food supplementation, female behavior, house sparrows, Passer domesticus.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Behav EcolHome page
N. Ockendon, S. C. Griffith, and T. Burke
Extrapair paternity in an insular population of house sparrows after the experimental introduction of individuals from the mainland
Behav. Ecol., March 1, 2009; 20(2): 305 - 312.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Behav EcolHome page
D. R. Rubenstein
Territory quality drives intraspecific patterns of extrapair paternity
Behav. Ecol., November 1, 2007; 18(6): 1058 - 1064.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.