Inbreeding and its avoidance in a wild bird population

Thesis

Inbreeding occurs when relatives mate and have offspring. Inbreeding depression is hypothesized to have influenced the evolution of mating systems and behavioural mechanisms of inbreeding avoidance in the animal kingdom. Inbreeding in the wild is difficult to measure, as in order to build a pedigree allowing us to identify matings between relatives, the identity of as many as possible members of a population needs to be known. For a long time, the main source of knowledge about inbreeding dep...

Expand abstract

Authors: Szulkin, M

• Publication date: 2007
• DOI: 10.5287/ora-xkngyjzn8
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: Oxford University, UK
• Language: English
• Keywords: divorce; inbreeding avoidance; genotype environment interactions; Wytham; dispersal; random mating; inbreeding depression; extra-pair paternity; inbreeding; Parus major; great tit
• Subjects: Evolution (zoology); Behaviour (zoology); Zoological sciences; Ecology (zoology); Biology