TY - JOUR
T1 - Owners, floaters and competitive asymmetries among territorial red-winged blackbirds
AU - Eckert, Christopher G.
AU - Weatherhead, Patrick J.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Rob Capell and Drew Hoysak for their assistance with the field work and W. A. Searcy and an anonymous reviewer for their criticisms of an earlier version of the manuscript. Logistic support was provided by the Queen's University Biological Station. The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) provided personal financial support to CGE. This research was financed by NSERC and The Canadian National Sportsmen's Fund through grants to PJW.
PY - 1987/10
Y1 - 1987/10
N2 - In an eastern Ontario population of red-winged blackbirds, Agelaius phoeniceus, some males were unsuccessful in obtaining a breeding territory and consequently existed as 'floaters'. However, not all floaters were inferior to territory owners with respect to two morphological correlates of social dominance status: wing length and epaulette length. Floaters who replaced experimentally removed owners were not smaller and did not have smaller epaulettes than owners. Ownership changed on 26·8% of 71 territories that were closely monitored and on 64·0% of 25 spot-checked territories. A considerable proportion of these changes in ownership appeared to be territory take-overs by intruding males. However, owners involved in these turnovers were not smaller and did not have smaller epaulettes than either the incoming males who succeeded them or the other territory owners who were not involved in turnovers. Overall, the data did not support the hypothesis that owner/floater status is determined by asymmetries in morphological features associated with competitive ability among males competing for a limited number of territories.
AB - In an eastern Ontario population of red-winged blackbirds, Agelaius phoeniceus, some males were unsuccessful in obtaining a breeding territory and consequently existed as 'floaters'. However, not all floaters were inferior to territory owners with respect to two morphological correlates of social dominance status: wing length and epaulette length. Floaters who replaced experimentally removed owners were not smaller and did not have smaller epaulettes than owners. Ownership changed on 26·8% of 71 territories that were closely monitored and on 64·0% of 25 spot-checked territories. A considerable proportion of these changes in ownership appeared to be territory take-overs by intruding males. However, owners involved in these turnovers were not smaller and did not have smaller epaulettes than either the incoming males who succeeded them or the other territory owners who were not involved in turnovers. Overall, the data did not support the hypothesis that owner/floater status is determined by asymmetries in morphological features associated with competitive ability among males competing for a limited number of territories.
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U2 - 10.1016/S0003-3472(87)80003-9
DO - 10.1016/S0003-3472(87)80003-9
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0000336690
SN - 0003-3472
VL - 35
SP - 1317
EP - 1323
JO - Animal Behaviour
JF - Animal Behaviour
IS - 5
ER -