A COMPARISON OF SEX DETERMINATION METHODS FOR THE CHILEAN FLAMINGO (Phoenicopterus chilensis)

GONZALEZ, PAULA; INSÚA ANDRÉS; ALICIA DE LA COLINA

Puerto Iguazú

Congreso; Ornithological Congress of the Americas; 2017

Association of Field Ornithologist

In the flamingos of the genus Phoenicopterus, sexual dimorphism is limited to theslightly larger size of the males, making it difficult to determine the sex of the individualsby direct observation. During a routine veterinary check at Fundación Temaikèn, fivemorphometric variables were measured: body mass (gr), culmen length, tarsus, middlefinger and flat wing (mm), and blood or feather samples were obtained from 66 adultChilean Flamingo (Phoenicopterus chilensis). Chelex 100 was used for DNA purificationand three primers (P2, P8 and P0) were used for the amplification of sex-specific bands.Males were significantly larger than females for all variables under study except theculmen length. Based on the DNA-determined sexes, we used discriminant analysis(DFA) to create equations for determining sex. The obtained functions allowed tocorrectly classify 78.8% of the individuals studied. Although DFA produced significantdiscriminant functions for correct sex assignment, the correct classification percentagewas low indicating that the use of morphometric measures is not a reliable method fordetermining the sex of this species. According to these results, DNA-based techniquesallow the unequivocal sex determination in these birds with scarce sexual dimorphism.In this work we demonstrate the efficacy of molecular analysis from feathers, a type ofsample that can be easily obtained, minimizing the manipulation time of the animals.Feathers do not require special storage conditions, which can facilitate the collection ofsamples in field campaigns at remote sites.