Morphometric variation in chinstrap penguins: molecular sexing and discriminant functions in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. Issue 4 (9th January 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Brummelhaus, Jaqueline; Valiati, Victor Hugo; Petry, Maria Virginia
• Is Part Of: Antarctic science. Volume 27:Issue 4(2015)
• Page Start: 327
• Page End: 332
• Publication Date: 2015-01-09
• Subjects: CHD gene, -- genetic sexing, -- morphological sexing, -- Pygoscelis antarcticus, -- sexual dimorphism; Science -- Antarctica -- Periodicals; 509.989
• DOI: 10.1017/S0954102014000820
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0954-1020

Abstract

Abstract: Chinstrap penguins ( Pygoscelis antarcticus ) show little sexual dimorphism and sexing by direct observation can be difficult. Through molecular techniques, male and female adults were identified at Stinker Point, Elephant Island, South Shetland Islands, in the 2011–12 and 2012–13 breeding seasons. In the assessment of sexual dimorphism using morphological characteristics, males were 6.0–9.4% larger than females. From the most significant morphological measurements, a discriminant function was formulated that classified 80.6% of the birds correctly. In addition, our data on bill length and depth were compared with those in the literature to evaluate sexual dimorphism between different breeding locations and to test the performance of the discriminant function. There were no differences in sexual dimorphism between breeding locations. However, the discriminant function should be used with caution because some penguins may be misclassified. Therefore, when there is doubt about the accuracy of morphometric approaches, application of molecular sexing techniques is recommended.