Male breeding experience, not mate familiarity, affects reproductive output in black brant geese

Individuals in species with long-term social monogamy often incur fitness costs after mate change. We evaluated the relative contributions of mate familiarity and male breeding experience to the costs of mate change of female black brant geese (Branta bernicla nigricans). We assessed the effects of mate change on relative nest initiation date, clutch size, brood size at hatch, growth rates of goslings, and prefledging survival of offspring. We modeled variation in relative nest initiation dates, clutch size, initial brood size, and gosling growth rates using generalized linear mixed models in Program R. We estimated prefledging survival with Cormack–Jolly–Seber models in Program MARK using reencounters of webtagged goslings. Mate change had a small effect on relative nest initiation date, clutch size, and initial brood size, but no effect on growth rates of brant goslings. Females breeding with an unfamiliar, but experienced male had goslings with higher prefledging survival rates (ϕ = ...

实行长期社会单配制的物种种群个体，在更换配偶后通常会承受适合度代价。本研究以雌性黑雁（Branta bernicla nigricans）为研究对象，评估了配偶熟悉度与雄性繁殖经验对其更换配偶所产生代价的相对贡献。我们评估了配偶更换对相对筑巢起始日期、窝卵数、孵化时育雏数、雏鸟生长速率以及后代出飞前存活率的影响。我们使用R语言程序中的广义线性混合模型（generalized linear mixed models），对相对筑巢起始日期、窝卵数、初始育雏数以及雏鸟生长速率的变异开展了建模分析。我们借助MARK程序中的科马克-乔利-西伯模型（Cormack–Jolly–Seber models），通过对佩戴webtag标记的雏鸟的重捕数据，估算了后代的出飞前存活率。研究结果显示，配偶更换对相对筑巢起始日期、窝卵数以及初始育雏数仅存在微弱影响，但对黑雁雏鸟的生长速率无显著作用。与搭配陌生但经验丰富的雄性配偶繁殖的雌性个体相比，其雏鸟的出飞前存活率更高（ϕ = ...