Heritability and phenotypic correlations of behaviour and dominance rank of Japanese quail

Abstract

The frequency and heritability of 13 behavioural acts of hatchling Japanese quail, Coturnix japonica, were measured in a laboratory experiment to examine their relationship to juvenile and adult dominance. The heritability of similar acts in adult quail were also quantified to determine how heritability estimates changed with age. Juvenile dominance rank, determined by frequency of winning conflicts, was uncorrelated with the frequency of any hatchling behaviour or hatchling body size but contained significant additive genetic variance in both males and females. Dominance rank in adult females, measured similarly, also had a high heritability estimate. Dominance in adult males, measured as frequency of initiating a fight and frequency of mounting, had only low heritability. Dominance ranking in adults was uncorrelated with the dominance ranking of juveniles. Dominance may be heritable but may not respond to natural selection because of the interaction between the genotype and the environment.