How dominance status of adult Japanese quail influences the viability and dominance status of their offspring

Abstract

Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix) acquire an ability to dominate conspecifics of the same sex through inheritance and through experience during interactions with siblings of the same sex. The extent to which the former can mask the latter was investigated in both males and females of this species. The results suggest that when differences in dominance status of the parental stock are marked (winning >85% of interactions versus winning <25%) the ability to dominate, acquired through inheritance, overrides virtually all ability acquired through experience in the brood. All encounters among males were decisively won by young birds from dominant stock, whereas among females the results, although similar, were not as clear-cut. The production of young by the two parental stocks was compared; those of low dominance status produced both greater numbers of young as well as a significantly higher proportion surviving to adulthood.