Insight regarding the genetic origin and composition of the studied population of the red-legged partridge (Alectoris rufa) is likely to provide general and critical information for the appropriate management and possible conservation of the species. The reintroduced population of red-legged partridges living in Pianosa Island (National Park Tuscany Archipelago) has proven to be sustainable: captive-bred individuals, morphologically assigned to the taxon A. rufa, were released to the island approximately 20 years ago, establishing an apparently well-adapted population. We have investigated this population by means of 10 microsatellite loci in order to shed light on its genetic structure. Considering that A. rufa is known to crossbreed with A. chukar, the Pianosa Island population was compared at the molecular level with a red-legged partridge breeding stock (Aulla, MS) as well as with a population of pure A. chukar. Our results indicate that the red-legged partridge population from Pianosa, morphologically identified as A. rufa, is actually partly introgressed with A. chukar, questioning its genetic purity and the possible use of this population as a starting stock for future reintroductions elsewhere.

In sexually dimorphic species, partners can assess heritable mate quality by analyzing costly sexual ornaments in terms of their dimension and possibly of their symmetry. In vertebrates an important aspect of genetic quality is the efficiency of the immune system, and in particular the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC). If ornaments are honest advertisements of pathogen resistance (good genes), in line with the Hamilton-Zuk hypothesis, a correlation between ornament expression and MHC profiles should exist. We tested this hypothesis in the common pheasant Phasianus colchicus by comparing male ornament characteristics (wattle and spur size, and wattle fluctuating asymmetry) with a portion of exon 2 of the class IIB MHC genes containing 19 putative antigen recognition sites. A total of 8 new alleles was observed in the MHCPhco exon IIB. We found significant differences in the occurrence of MHC genotypes between males carrying large or small wattles. Homozygous genotypes predicted large wattle males more correctly than small wattle males. The association between the dimension of the spur and the occurrence of MHC genotypes was marginally significant, however, we did not find any significant association between MHC genotypes and asymmetry. Our results suggest that female pheasants may use the ornament size as a cue to evaluate male quality and thus choose males carrying particular MHC profiles.