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

• Published in: Journal of ornithology 2014, Vol.155 (4), p.959-967
• Main Authors: Riou, Samuel, Combreau, Olivier
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: breeding; Chlamydotis; Chlamydotis macqueenii; Ecology; Females; Fish & Wildlife Biology & Management; Genetic analysis; global positioning systems; Hypotheses; Lek behavior; Life Sciences; Males; Mate selection; Mating; mating behavior; nesting; nests; Original Article; Paternity; Polygyny; Population studies; Reproductive behavior; Spatial distribution; Territorial behavior; territoriality; Zoology
• ISSN: 2193-7192; 2193-7206
• DOI: 10.1007/s10336-014-1082-4

Lekking 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.