Mate choice of female alpine accentors : female behavior, paternity, sperm activity, hormone.

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In the alpine accentor Prunella collaris, females solicit dominant males to copulate with. Moreover, dominant males adopt mate guarding for several females. Thus, dominant males are able to get many females and higher reproductive success than subordinates. In contrast, subordinate males also have a reproductive success. In the sperm competition theory, the quality of sperm, not social dominance, would be important to gain the paternity. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between social dominance and sperm activity in the alpine accentor. However, littlie is known how to monitor the sperm activity (sperm velocity, density, and motility) in birds. Therefore, we developed the method to monitor the sperm activity in the Japanese quail Coturnix japonica. As a result, we confirmed that high ranking males have higher activity of sperm and testosterone than low ranking males. In the study using the Japanese quail, collected sperm was diluted with ca. 80 volumes of BWW medium (Irvine Scientific Co.). However, Irvine Scientific Co. stopped to make BWW medium in 2004. We collected and analyzed the sperm of alpine accentors with BWW in 2003. So we could not continue to study. In 2005,we used Hiroshima resolution instead of BWW medium, but the data with BWW was not used. Therefore, we had to get data again in 2005. Now, we write a manuscript entitled "Influence of social dominance on the sperm activity in Japanese quail."