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Morphometric variation in chinstrap penguins: molecular sexing and discriminant functions in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 January 2015

Jaqueline Brummelhaus ,
Victor Hugo Valiati  and
Maria Virginia Petry
Jaqueline Brummelhaus*
Affiliation:
Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos, Graduate Program in Biology, Laboratory of Ornithology and Marine Animals, Center for Health Sciences. Av. Unisinos, 950, 93022-000, PO Box 275, São Leopoldo, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos, Graduate Program in Biology, Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Center for Health Sciences. Av. Unisinos, 950, 93022-000, PO Box 275, São Leopoldo, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
Victor Hugo Valiati
Affiliation:
Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos, Graduate Program in Biology, Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Center for Health Sciences. Av. Unisinos, 950, 93022-000, PO Box 275, São Leopoldo, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
Maria Virginia Petry
Affiliation:
Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos, Graduate Program in Biology, Laboratory of Ornithology and Marine Animals, Center for Health Sciences. Av. Unisinos, 950, 93022-000, PO Box 275, São Leopoldo, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
*
jaquebrummelhaus@gmail.com
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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.

Keywords

CHD genegenetic sexingmorphological sexingPygoscelis antarcticussexual dimorphism
Type
Biological Sciences
Information
Antarctic Science , Volume 27 , Supplement 4 , August 2015 , pp. 327 - 332
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Copyright
© Antarctic Science Ltd 2015 

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