Male mating success in an aquatically mating pinniped, the harbour seal ( Phoca vitulina), assessed by microsatellite DNA markers
Similar to many other pinniped species, harbour seals ( Phoca vitulina ) mate exclusively at sea. Here we present the first attempt to measure male mating success in an aquatically mating pinniped. Male mating success was estimated by paternity analysis in two cohorts of pups born at Sable Island, N...
Published in: | Molecular Ecology |
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Language: | English |
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1998
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-294x.1998.00373.x https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1046%2Fj.1365-294x.1998.00373.x https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1046/j.1365-294x.1998.00373.x https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1046/j.1365-294x.1998.00373.x |
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crwiley:10.1046/j.1365-294x.1998.00373.x 2024-06-02T08:07:48+00:00 Male mating success in an aquatically mating pinniped, the harbour seal ( Phoca vitulina), assessed by microsatellite DNA markers COLTMAN, D. W. BOWEN, W. D. WRIGHT, J. M. 1998 http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-294x.1998.00373.x https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1046%2Fj.1365-294x.1998.00373.x https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1046/j.1365-294x.1998.00373.x https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1046/j.1365-294x.1998.00373.x en eng Wiley http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor Molecular Ecology volume 7, issue 5, page 627-638 ISSN 0962-1083 1365-294X journal-article 1998 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-294x.1998.00373.x 2024-05-03T10:44:07Z Similar to many other pinniped species, harbour seals ( Phoca vitulina ) mate exclusively at sea. Here we present the first attempt to measure male mating success in an aquatically mating pinniped. Male mating success was estimated by paternity analysis in two cohorts of pups born at Sable Island, Nova Scotia, Canada, using microsatellite DNA markers. The genotypes of 275 pups born in 1994 and 1995 were compared to those of 90 candidate males at six microsatellite loci using a likelihood approach to resolve paternity. Paternity could be assigned for two, 22, 40 and 85 pups at confidence levels of 95, 80, 65 and 50%, respectively. Most successful males were assigned the paternity of a single offspring, suggesting a low variance in male mating success relative to most pinniped species. The proportion of paternal half sibs within cohorts and between maternally related sibs estimated by maximum likelihood were not significantly different from zero. It is thus unlikely that most offspring were sired by a small number of highly successful unsampled males, and that female harbour seals do not usually exhibit fidelity to the same male in sequential breeding seasons. A low level of polygyny in Sable Island harbour seals is consistent with predictions based on their breeding ecology, as females are highly mobile and widely dispersed in the aquatic mating environment at Sable Island. Article in Journal/Newspaper harbour seal Phoca vitulina Wiley Online Library Canada Island Harbour ENVELOPE(70.067,70.067,-49.483,-49.483) Molecular Ecology 7 5 627 638 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Wiley Online Library |
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crwiley |
language |
English |
description |
Similar to many other pinniped species, harbour seals ( Phoca vitulina ) mate exclusively at sea. Here we present the first attempt to measure male mating success in an aquatically mating pinniped. Male mating success was estimated by paternity analysis in two cohorts of pups born at Sable Island, Nova Scotia, Canada, using microsatellite DNA markers. The genotypes of 275 pups born in 1994 and 1995 were compared to those of 90 candidate males at six microsatellite loci using a likelihood approach to resolve paternity. Paternity could be assigned for two, 22, 40 and 85 pups at confidence levels of 95, 80, 65 and 50%, respectively. Most successful males were assigned the paternity of a single offspring, suggesting a low variance in male mating success relative to most pinniped species. The proportion of paternal half sibs within cohorts and between maternally related sibs estimated by maximum likelihood were not significantly different from zero. It is thus unlikely that most offspring were sired by a small number of highly successful unsampled males, and that female harbour seals do not usually exhibit fidelity to the same male in sequential breeding seasons. A low level of polygyny in Sable Island harbour seals is consistent with predictions based on their breeding ecology, as females are highly mobile and widely dispersed in the aquatic mating environment at Sable Island. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
COLTMAN, D. W. BOWEN, W. D. WRIGHT, J. M. |
spellingShingle |
COLTMAN, D. W. BOWEN, W. D. WRIGHT, J. M. Male mating success in an aquatically mating pinniped, the harbour seal ( Phoca vitulina), assessed by microsatellite DNA markers |
author_facet |
COLTMAN, D. W. BOWEN, W. D. WRIGHT, J. M. |
author_sort |
COLTMAN, D. W. |
title |
Male mating success in an aquatically mating pinniped, the harbour seal ( Phoca vitulina), assessed by microsatellite DNA markers |
title_short |
Male mating success in an aquatically mating pinniped, the harbour seal ( Phoca vitulina), assessed by microsatellite DNA markers |
title_full |
Male mating success in an aquatically mating pinniped, the harbour seal ( Phoca vitulina), assessed by microsatellite DNA markers |
title_fullStr |
Male mating success in an aquatically mating pinniped, the harbour seal ( Phoca vitulina), assessed by microsatellite DNA markers |
title_full_unstemmed |
Male mating success in an aquatically mating pinniped, the harbour seal ( Phoca vitulina), assessed by microsatellite DNA markers |
title_sort |
male mating success in an aquatically mating pinniped, the harbour seal ( phoca vitulina), assessed by microsatellite dna markers |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
1998 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-294x.1998.00373.x https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1046%2Fj.1365-294x.1998.00373.x https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1046/j.1365-294x.1998.00373.x https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1046/j.1365-294x.1998.00373.x |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(70.067,70.067,-49.483,-49.483) |
geographic |
Canada Island Harbour |
geographic_facet |
Canada Island Harbour |
genre |
harbour seal Phoca vitulina |
genre_facet |
harbour seal Phoca vitulina |
op_source |
Molecular Ecology volume 7, issue 5, page 627-638 ISSN 0962-1083 1365-294X |
op_rights |
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-294x.1998.00373.x |
container_title |
Molecular Ecology |
container_volume |
7 |
container_issue |
5 |
container_start_page |
627 |
op_container_end_page |
638 |
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1800752927264997376 |