Male territories and the lek-like mating system of MacQueen’s Bustard Chlamydotis macqueenii

Samuel Riou,Olivier Combreau

doi:10.1007/s10336-014-1082-4

Abstract

AbstractLekking is a promiscuous breeding system in which females visit groups of displaying males only for the purpose of mating. The spatial organization of these groups can range from tight aggregations of individuals, or leks, to loose clusters of males displaying on exploded-leks, and it can also include males seemingly displaying alone. As the distance between displaying males increases, it becomes possible for them to hold fixed territories and for females to select mates not for their genetic quality, as on true leks, but for the quality of the resource on their territory, i.e., resource-defense polygyny. Here, in a 2-year study of a breeding population of MacQueen’s Bustard Chlamydotis macqueenii in southwest Kazakhstan, we used GPS and radio-tracking coupled with observation to understand male territoriality and the spatial distribution of sites, and we followed the breeding behavior of cryptic females using nest locations and genetic paternity analysis. We found that males were faithful throughout the season and across years to a small and exclusive territory centered on their display site. These sites were significantly overdispersed in space and thus we could not delimit any leks in a study area spanning 350 km2. Females nested in the vicinity of male territories and sometimes inside them, but based on a sample of six resolved paternities, they did not favor the territory of their mate for nesting. This is inconsistent with the hypothesis of resource-based female choice and implies that the breeding system of MacQueen’s Bustard can be treated as a special case of lekking, albeit without male aggregation. Six broods were fathered by at least five different males, which lends support to the hypothesis that overdispersion of male sites is related to variability in female mate choice, and thus low male mating-skew in a lekking system.

Highlights

Lekking is an uncommon breeding system classically defined by the conspicuous aggregations of displaying males that females visit only for the purpose of selecting a mate (Bradbury 1981; Hoglund and Alatalo 1995)
The spatial organization of these groups can range from tight aggregations of individuals, or leks, to loose clusters of males displaying on exploded-leks, and it can include males seemingly displaying alone
Ornamented males performing sophisticated displays and not involved in parental care are found in species where the criterion of male aggregation is less clearly validated: in these situations, the system has usually been described as exploded lekking, when breeding males are found in loose clusters of large and dispersed territories (Hoglund and Alatalo 1995; Ligon 1999) and occasionally as solitarily display (Pruett-Jones and Pruett-Jones 1982; Emlen and Oring 1977; Foster 1983; Jiguet et al 2000)

Summary

Introduction

Lekking is an uncommon breeding system classically defined by the conspicuous aggregations of displaying males that females visit only for the purpose of selecting a mate (Bradbury 1981; Hoglund and Alatalo 1995). Ornamented males performing sophisticated displays and not involved in parental care are found in species where the criterion of male aggregation is less clearly validated: in these situations, the system has usually been described as exploded lekking, when breeding males are found in loose clusters of large and dispersed territories (Hoglund and Alatalo 1995; Ligon 1999) and occasionally as solitarily display (Pruett-Jones and Pruett-Jones 1982; Emlen and Oring 1977; Foster 1983; Jiguet et al 2000). In the few species that have received some attention male parental care appears absent, and males are thought to be displaying solitarily or in dispersed groups during the breeding season, but most studies are no more than reports on the observation of a few displaying males (references in Morales et al 2001). The behavior of three species the Great Bustard (Otis tarda), Little Bustard (Tetrax tetrax), and African Houbara (Chlamydotis undulata) have been investigated in more depth: authors have usually described loose aggregations of males within a larger section of suitable habitat (Lett et al 2000; Jiguet et al 2000; Alonso et al 2003; Hingrat and Saint Jalme 2005), home-ranges of breeding males have been reported in all three species using either radio-tracking and/or observation (Lett et al 2000; Jiguet et al 2000; Hingrat et al 2004; Magana 2007; Alonso et al 2010) and females have been found to lay regularly or occasionally on ‘‘leks’’ and male territories (Morgado and Moreira 2000; Jiguet et al 2002; Hingrat et al 2004; Magana et al 2011)

Methods

Results

Conclusion