Offspring sex ratios in subcolonies of Audouin's gull, Larus audouinii, with differential breeding performance

Abstract

At the Ebro River delta colony in the western Mediterranean Sea, Audouin's gull, Larus audouinii, breeds in discrete aggregations called subcolonies, which showed strong differences in breeding parameters such as egg volume or breeding success. Egg parameters (such as size of both eggs and clutches) are strongly influenced by food availability. As all subcolonies are in the same area, differences in egg parameters might reflect different individuals' foraging efficiency. We measured mean clutch volumes in different subcolonies and chose those subcolonies that showed the greatest differences in this measure, which should indicate differences in parental body condition. Between these subcolonies we would expect, in turn, differences in offspring sex ratios. We took blood samples at hatching and fledging from chicks at these subcolonies and compared offspring sex ratios by means of molecular sexing. The proportions of young breeders differed between these subcolonies, and the subcolony with the greater proportion of young breeders produced smaller eggs and had lower breeding success. However, we did not detect any bias in progeny sex ratio, which probably indicates that if parental condition is not extremely reduced, selective pressures are insufficient to overcome the constraints imposed by Mendelian segregation of chromosomes.