Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Does Mate Guarding Prevent Rival Mating In Snow Skinks? A Test Using Aflp, Mats M. Olsson, Beata Ujvari, Erik Wapstra, Thomas R. Madsen, Rick Shine, S. Bensch

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

We report on likely mixed paternity in a natural population of snow skinks (Niveoscincus mirolepidotus) from alpine Tasmania, Australia. This species is nonterritorial and males guard females after copulation, suggesting that guarding behavior has evolved to prevent rival mating of still-receptive females. To what degree does this mate-guarding prevent rival copulations? We sampled gravid females at random in the wild and looked for within-clutch mixed paternity among their offspring using amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP). Incorporating all visualized fragments, offspring band-sharing based on maternal bands was 0.94 (60.05, SD), whereas for paternal fragments it was 0.54 (60.46, SD). We then …