Sexual differences in phenotypical predictors of floating status: body condition influences male but not female reproductive status in a wild passerine.

ABSTRACT: Floaters constitute the sexually mature but non-breeding part of populations. Despite being ubiquitous in most species, knowledge about floaters is scarce. Ignoring this significant number of individuals may strongly bias our understanding of population dynamics and sexual selection processes. We used the spotless starling (Sturnus unicolor) to examine whether phenotypical and non-phenotypical variables from early and adult life predict reproductive status, focusing on the earliest age at which most individuals start to breed, when the percentage of floaters is the highest. We compiled data from a long-term study involving eight female and seven male cohorts of individuals PIT-tagged at birth. We compared a suite of nestling (condition, hatching date and brood size) and adult variables (co

SUBMITTER: Redondo I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9119866 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature