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REVIEW
Contents Vol 110(3)

Post-copulatory sexual selection and the Zebra Finch

T. R. Birkhead
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Department of Animal & Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK. Email: t.r.birkhead@sheffield.ac.uk

Emu 110(3) 189-198 https://doi.org/10.1071/MU09086
Submitted: 2 September 2009  Accepted: 15 October 2009   Published: 18 August 2010

Abstract

The Zebra Finch Taeniopygia guttata is a model passerine and since the mid-1980s my research group has studied both domesticated birds in captivity, and wild birds in Australia, as part of a program of research designed to explore the adaptive significance and underlying mechanisms of sperm competition in birds. Extra-pair courtship is common in wild Zebra Finches, but rarely leads to mounting and as a result extra-pair paternity is infrequent, a result consistent with male Zebra Finch reproductive anatomy. Nonetheless, the species has proved to be an excellent model for sperm competition studies because its basic reproductive anatomy and reproductive processes are similar to other birds. The outcome of sperm competition in the Zebra Finch and other birds is best predicted by the passive sperm loss model, allowing for differences in sperm numbers and quality (fertilising capacity). Last male sperm precedence is not a ‘rule’ in birds but is a consequence of the way sperm competition experiments have been conducted. Several male reproductive traits, including sperm size and velocity in the Zebra Finch have a genetic basis, and, as the Zebra Finch genome project gains momentum, the genes for these traits will be identified.

Zebra Finches are often taken for granted by Australians because they are numerous, noisy and persistent, but many, including myself, admire them because they typify the “little Australian battler” – the small and insignificant, that somehow succeeds by simply hanging on and enduring the vicissitudes of the vast, harsh country of inland Australia. (Richard Zann, ‘The Zebra Finch’, 1996)


Acknowledgements

Richard Zann welcomed me to Australia and generously shared both his study population and his extensive knowledge of wild Zebra Finch biology with me in 1988. Without his help I would never had been able to evaluate properly our laboratory studies. Keith Clarkson accompanied me on that first trip to Australia and was an exemplary field assistant. I thank my wife Miriam for allowing me to abandon her for six weeks during that first visit to Australia while she cared for our three small children. In 1984 George and Jill Lewsey – the UK’s top Zebra Finch breeders – gave me my first homozygous grey Zebra Finches, which formed the basis of our captive population and I am very grateful to them for this. I also thank all those who have worked on our captive population: Clair Bennison, Patricia Brekke, Jon Blount, Terry Burke, Hector Castillo, Nick Colegrave, Bobbie Fletcher, Lynsey Gregory, Nicola Hemmings, Fiona Hunter, Kate Lessells, Ian Matthews, Fiona McPhie, Jim Mossman, Jayne Pellatt, Nichola Roddis, Jessica Stapley, Jon Slate, Alison Staples, Rachel Yeates and Phil Young. Finally, I thank the innumerable undergraduate helpers and the various funding bodies that have supported our research. Finally, I thank R. Montgomerie for his perceptive and constructive comments on the manuscript.


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