Pairing Behavior of the Monogamous King Quail, Coturnix chinensis.

ABSTRACT: Animals with socially monogamous mating systems are valuable for discovering proximate mechanisms of prosocial behavior and close social relationships. Especially powerful are comparisons between related species that differ in monogamous tendency. Birds are the most socially monogamous vertebrates. Thus far most research on mechanisms of pairing has used zebra finches, which do not have a relative with a different mating system, however. The goal of the experiments reported here was to develop a new comparative avian system by studying the pairing behavior of a reportedly strongly monogamous quail, the king quail (Coturnix chinensis), a species in the same clade as the less monogamous Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica), the subject of much prior research. In Experiment 1 male-female pairs

SUBMITTER: Adkins-Regan E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4892625 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature