‘Shy’ albatrosses more likely to get divorced
Many of us dream of finding the love of our life who we will be with forever, and we’re not the only species to couple with another for life.
But, we also part ways if the relationship doesn’t work out, and it seems that albatrosses do too.
Researchers who have been observing the behaviour of wandering albatrosses, which spend most of their time around the Southern Ocean, found that a bird’s personality predicted their likelihood of ‘divorce’.
Since 1959, wandering albatrosses on Possession Island in the Crozet archipelago have been monitored by scientists, who have been tagging chicks with unique numbers and identifying which birds form couples.
The boldness of birds that are nesting has also been measured since 2008, based on how they respond to a human approaching the nest.
The team found that ‘shyer’ male birds had higher rates of ‘divorce’ than other, bolder males.
But, this effect wasn’t seen in females, with the scientists suggesting that the divorce rate among male birds may be due to shyer males not engaging in aggressive behaviour when other males interrupt their courtship.
To explain why the same divorce rate was seen among female birds, the team also theorised that females have more opportunities to mate than males.
With the wandering albatross considered a vulnerable species, determining what causes divorce could prove to be useful for evaluating how successful breeding will be in given populations.
“In our study population, breeding success does not differ between shyer and bolder males in their early adulthood, but bolder males are known to have higher reproductive success in their late adulthood,” they write.
“From an evolutionary point of view, understanding the selective pressures acting on personality is of great interest, especially if different personality types lead to divergent demographic consequences.”
Their findings were published in the journal Royal Society Biology Letters.
Image: Supplied