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Updated: Feb 24, 2026

Visually Sexing Loggerhead Shrike Lanius Ludovicianus Using Plumage Coloration and Pattern
Published on: March 8, 2020
Experimental evidence for homeostatic sex allocation after sex-biased reintroductions
Wayne Leslie Linklater1,2, Peter Roy Law2, Jay Vinson Gedir1
1Centre for Biodiversity and Restoration Ecology, School of Biological Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington 6021, Wellington, New Zealand.
Abstract:
First principles predict negative frequency-dependent sex allocation, but it is unproven in field studies and seldom considered, despite far-reaching consequences for theory and practice in population genetics and dynamics as well as animal ecology and behaviour. Twenty-four years of rhinoceros calving after 45 reintroductions across southern Africa provide the first in situ experimental evidence that unbalanced operational sex ratios predicted offspring sex and offspring sex ratios. Our understanding of population dynamics, especially reintroduction and invasion biology, will be significantly impacted by these findings.
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