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Do we know that they “almost exclusively mate with females of the other morph” or is it just because same-morph matings are infertile?
by kseistrup 10y ago
Do we know that they “almost exclusively mate with females of the other morph” or is it just because same-morph matings are infertile?
- drcross 10y agoWhat consenting morphs do in the privacy of their own nests is none of your business.
- matt_morgan 10y agoThe article isn't explicit on that, but they did observe the birds for 30 years, so maybe it's in the paper.
- qb45 10y agoThe paper says 1.5% of pairs were indeed between the same morphs. No mention of infertility, but white/white pairs produce 1/4 of chicks with both 2nd chromosomes mutated and the only male chick of this kind they found was 50% underweight runt, though two such females grew up as normal white adults.