Overview
Animals that express free mate choice often produce more, higher-quality offspring compared to those that mate randomly. However, current evidence for these benefits are varied, and we don’t understand why allowing choice is beneficial in some populations but not others. This is important because current anthropogenic change increasingly limits the opportunity for mate choice in natural populations (e.g. habitat loss and fragmentation, reduced population size), which may negatively impact individual reproductive success and population viability.
About this opportunity
Conservation breeding programmes provide an effective way to test this question. Many endangered species do not breed well in captivity, and while the causes of breeding failure are often not well understood, free mate choice may provide a simple and effective way to reduce the frequency of failure. However, mate choice also has the potential to reduce the genetic diversity of the population, which conservation breeding programs explicitly aim to avoid, and it is unclear whether the benefits of choice to the individuals are outweighed by the genetic costs to the population.
You will investigate the potential role of mate choice in improving conservation breeding outcomes by:
- Quantify the potential benefits of allowing free mate choice using existing animal data from published studies and global zoo breeding records (using the ZIMS database)
- Testing the reproductive benefits of free mate choice in zoo animals. Initial trials will compare group-breeding Grosbeak starlings (Scissirostrum dubium) at Chester Zoo with pair-breeding populations at other European zoos; this may then be expanded to other species.
- Estimating whether free mate choice reduces the genetic diversity of the zoo populations tested above, and whether this reduction breaches existing conservation breeding guidelines.
This will be the first project to explicitly test why mate choice is beneficial in some populations but not others, taking advantage of the massive amount of breeding data available from zoo records. This will provide a better understanding of the adaptive benefits of mate choice in small populations, both in captivity and in the wild.
Improving conservation breeding outcomes is critically important for the health of many endangered species, and this work is very timely given the continuing degradation of natural habitats due to anthropogenic change. Results from this work will help to provide improved breeding success for targeted species across European breeding programmes, and general recommendations for many more vulnerable species around the world. It will also provide a better understanding of the adaptive benefits of mate choice in small populations in the wild.
This is an interdisciplinary project led by a team of behavioural biologists and conservation scientists, designed in cooperation with Chester Zoo. You will have the opportunity to design and carry out data collection in zoo animals, while collaborating with animal care staff and conservation scientists. You will be trained in a range of scientific skills, including population management, behavioural observations, experimental design and statistics, systematic review and meta-analysis, scientific writing, and science communication. You will join an inclusive and supportive research environment at the University of Liverpool, led by an experienced and diverse team. You will have the opportunity to spend time working at Chester Zoo within the Science Department, during which time you will be part of a large group of 20+ Conservation Scholars and Fellows and over 20 scientific staff.
Project CASE Status
This project is a CASE project. Your project will be co-supervised by the non-academic partner organisation, and you will spend 3-6 months on a placement with your CASE partner in their workplace. You will experience training, facilities and expertise not available in an academic setting, and will build business and research collaborations.