BREEDING IN THE WILD

[lovezebs]

Hi All.

Something crossed my mind today, when I was reading about the possibility of siblings breeding, or cousins, or parents with their young....

My question has to do with birds in the wild.
With family groups in the wild, do they not in-breed? I mean they obviously don't have the moral compunctions that humans have (or should have) regarding 'incest'. With small groups in the wild, is this not a naturally occuring thing? And, what does that do to the blood lines and general health of the birds?

~Elana~

[lovezebs]

Come on folks..... doesn't anyone have an answer?

~Elana~

[Jen]

Good question Elana...don't have an answer but look forward to hearing from others!

[Rox]

A very good question! I have wondered this as well and I do think it must happen. We have some regular pairs of finches in the garden that bring their fledglings to feed. They definitely chase off the youngsters once weaned but I don't see how they could possibly stop interbreeding at a later stage.

Would be interesting to read up more about this.

[KarenB]

In the wild, the parent birds establish their territory and the offspring go find their own territory. That's the simple answer. In many social species the trick is that one sex, usually the female, leaves the group at adolescence. That way they can’t mate with their own family. Presumably, this dispersal behavior evolved because females who left home had more offspring who would in turn carry on behaving this way. Nature has a way of culling offspring as a result of the parents being too closely related. Generally hens will select a male that is not closely related.

[KarenB]

Some reading material

http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/ ... 5/1635/703

http://beheco.oxfordjournals.org/content/19/6/1200.full

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Ad ... ne.0001027

[isobea]

Hi gals, this is what I observed in my own backyard: we've lived in this house for 29 years now but only the last four years had western bluebirds show up. Every year there is one pair that raises 6 to 8 young ones. They come to our birdbath several times a day so we get to know them pretty well. They'll disappear during the winter months (probably going down into Mexico) and then next spring only one pair will show up again. Of course I have no way of knowing if it's the same pair year after year, but the interesting question is where did those young ones go to establish there own territories?
Iso

[lovezebs]

Jen & KarenB & isobea

I guess I can see where it's single couples, who drive off their young due to territory issues. What about birds who remain in flocks? Do they not remain In family groups?

~Elana~

[solo_birdlover]

Well, actually I was just thinking about this the other day but regarding birds in captivity and not in the wild. Would chicks breed with each other when they're older if kept in the same cage? I think parents probably have a way of knowing their own offspring -as in the case with lions, tigers and many other mammals- but I'm not sure about the siblings.

[lovezebs]

solo_birdlover
Hi.
In captivity, siblings will breed together, also parents and their own children. That's why it's a good idea, to house them seperately once they become mature enough to breed, or provide no nests and discard any stray eggs, or seperate the genders into different flights.

Once you start breeding, you also want to ring , or band your birds with different colours, so that you know the family groups, which clutch, and the genders.

In the wild however ???

~Elana~

[GlennO]

With regard to flock birds, inbreeding in the wild is less likely to occur than in captivity because juveniles will join a large flock from which they will select a mate prior to the next breeding season. Any occasional inbreeding is not sufficient to negatively impact on the local gene pool.

It's only when environmental or other constraints reduce populations significantly that inbreeding becomes a factor that threatens the sustainability of the population.

[lovezebs]

GlennO
Thank you for the answer. It's something that I've been wondering about for quite a while.

~Elana~