THE INHERITANCE OF MIGRATORY BEHAVIOUR IN QUAILS

STUDENT SEMINAR IN BIODIVERSITY AND EVOLUTION

Bird migration is one of the most spectacular natural phenomena. Every year, birds of many species undertake long, seasonally-timed, journeys between breeding and wintering locations, frequently flying individually and without prior experience. This capability is dependent on a suite of co-adapted traits (behavioural, morphological, physiological) forming what is known as the "migratory syndrome". The high variability in migratory strategies, both between and within species, as well as previous evidence from several species suggests that this suite of traits has high evolvability, but detailed information on how quick changes in migratory strategies occur is lacking. In this talk I will show some preliminary results of a project aimed at understanding the inheritance of migration in quails (Coturnix spp.) and how it relates to the evolution of this trait in natural populations.

Pedro Andrade is a 4th-year BIODIV PhD student, working under the supervision of Miguel Carneiro (EVOLGEN) and David Gonçalves (AVE). Pedro is mostly interested in evolutionary and functional genomics, trying to understand the link between phenotypes and their underlying genotypes using several vertebrate model species.

[Host: David Gonçalves, Avian Ecology]

Image credits: Magnus von Wright / Wilhelm von Wright