It is generally accepted that populations which experience severe bottlenecks have a reduction in fitness. One of the most frequently reported fitness costs is increased hatching failure in bottlenecked populations of birds. The mechanism responsible for increased hatching failure is unknown. Research on other animals suggest that reduced population numbers cause unavoidable inbreeding that in turn leads to abnormalities in the gametes. In this thesis I examine some of the possible causes for increased hatching failure in severely bottlenecked populations of introduced birds in New Zealand. I look at three traits identified as a cause for infertility or hatching failure previously and determine whether there is a link with the size of a population s bottleneck. It is possible that reduced numbers of sperm reaching the site of fertilisation is a primary cause of hatching failure. I examined the perivitelline membrane of various species of introduced birds and counted the total number of sperm present to compare to how many would be expected in non-bottlenecked species. Although there was no relationship between the size of the bottleneck and the number of sperm present, all species had lower than expected sperm counts. In many species of mammals, a reduction in the quality of sperm is attributed to inbreeding depression bought about by genetic bottlenecks. I next compared the level of sperm abnormalities, variation in midpiece size sperm, and sperm motility with the size of the bottleneck each species passed through when introduced to New Zealand. There was no significant correlation between either the variation in midpiece size or sperm motility with bottleneck size. However, there was a trend for species that passed through more severe bottlenecks to have a slightly higher level of midpiece size and lower motility. Finally, I examined whether there was a link between abnormalities in the eggshell and the size of the respective bottleneck. There was no significant change in eggshell thickness or any change in the number of pores associated bottleneck size. However, there was a decreased number of round pores in severely bottlenecked species, although the consequences of this are unknown. My findings do not directly link a single cause for increased hatching failure in bottlenecked species of birds, but they do highlight the need for monitoring of reproductive traits in endangered species that have experienced a population bottleneck.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/273729 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | Burrows, Ben Robert |
| Publisher | University of Canterbury. Biological Sciences |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | Copyright Ben Robert Burrows, http://library.canterbury.ac.nz/thesis/etheses_copyright.shtml |
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