Social Mating System and Sex-Biased Dispersal in Mammals and Birds: A Phylogenetic Analysis

Abstract

The hypothesis that patterns of sex-biased dispersal are related to social mating system in mammals and birds has gained widespread acceptance over the past 30 years. However, two major complications have obscured the relationship between these two behaviors: 1) dispersal frequency and dispersal distance, which measure different aspects of the dispersal process, have often been confounded, and 2) the relationship between mating system and sex-biased dispersal in these vertebrate groups has not been examined using modern phylogenetic comparative methods. Here, we present a phylogenetic analysis of the relationship between mating system and sex-biased dispersal in mammals and birds. Results indicate that the evolution of female-biased dispersal in mammals may be more likely on monogamous branches of the phylogeny, and that females may disperse farther than males in socially monogamous mammalian species. However, we found no support for a relationship between social mating system and sex-biased dispersal in birds when the effects of phylogeny are taken into consideration. We caution that although there are larger-scale behavioral differences in mating system and sex-biased dispersal between mammals and birds, mating system and sex-biased dispersal are far from perfectly associated within these taxa.

Patterns of genetic, phenotypic, and acoustic variation across a chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita abietinus/tristis) hybrid zone

“…As our sampling was restricted to only include males, we are unfortunately not able to compare to the geographic distribution of mtDNA haplotypes and correlation between mtDNA and genomic composition in females. As many avian taxa have female‐biased dispersal (Mabry, Shelley, Davis, Blumstein, & Van Vuren, 2013) and a comparatively high rate of mtDNA introgression across divergent lineages (reviewed in Rheindt & Edwards, 2011), it is plausible that additional analyses including female samples from across the distribution ranges of abietinus and tristis would provide more quantitative information on the presence and potential bias in introgression patterns across the two subspecies.…”

Social behavior and organization of a native chukar (Alectoris Chukar Cypriotes) population

“…Male-biased juvenile dispersal and female-biased natal philopatry have been found or suspected in a few other birds (Mabry et al 2013), among them some New World quails (Odontophoridae; Gullion 1960, Leopold 1977, Calkins et al 1999, Fies et al 2002. Philopatry has not been studied with molecular-genetic methods in most New World quails.…”

Comparative Tests of Birds Support a Link between Sex-Biased Dispersal and Body Size

“…In birds, female-biased dispersal is the norm, as only ~15% of known species have male-biased dispersal [7]. Greenwood [1] hypothesized that the paucity of male-biased dispersal in birds is tied to their widespread mating system of resource-defense monogamy.…”

“…According to his hypothesis, males are more likely to remain in their natal area, because they must defend a nest or territory, which thereby places a premium on their familiarity with the local resources. Recently, Mabry et al [7] tested Greenwood's hypothesis with the median and average dispersal distances for the females and males of 56 bird species. Despite their use of both distance ratio and binary sex-biased dispersal characters, these authors were unable to reach any strong conclusions about the relationship between sex-biased dispersal and mating system.…”