Date: July 20, 2016
Source: Monash University
Research is shedding new light on
the causes of divorce in monogamous year-round territorial birds. A Monash
University study of the endangered Purple-crowned Fairy-wren has discovered the
females are calling the shots when it comes to breaking up.
Published in the
journal Behavioral Ecology, the School of Biological Sciences' research
studied 317 breeding pairs to learn what was driving the behaviour. As many as
one in five avian pairs ended in divorce over nine years, and lead researcher
Associate Professor Anne Peters said they were surprised to find it was the
females who were more likely to break up.
"Females exhibit long term
planning and are more likely to end their relationship when the opportunity for
a better territory arises.
"We found females were
prepared to wait, sometimes up to three years, for a good vacant spot to come
up -- where the female owner has died or moved on."
Found in Western Australia's
Kimberley region, it's estimated less than 10,000 Purple-crowned Fairy-wrens
remain in the area. Unlike birds that move away from their territory and
separate after breeding, the Fairy-wrens live together in pairs, year-round, in
the same patch.
"These females are sitting
there, they're not happy with their partner or their territory; they have an
affair on the side and they're more likely to divorce. With divorce they get a
different partner and a different territory. The territory seems to be more
important than the partner," Associate Professor Peters said.
PhD candidate and first author
Nataly Hidalgo Aranzamendi said the females were prepared to take drastic
action to gain a better territory. "We found that older females sometimes
kicked younger females out of their territories to claim these as their
own."
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