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1 December 2011 Adult Sex Ratio of a Population of the Japanese Salamander, Hynobius tokyoensis (Caudata: Hynobiidae)
Tamotsu Kusano, Masafumi Inoue
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Abstract

Adult sex ratio is considered to be a key factor in understanding sexual selection, mating behavior, life history and population dynamics. Following Fisher (1930), a general consensus was formed that sex ratio tends to be largely balanced. However, gainsaying this, large variations in sex ratio have been reported among populations and species of amphibians. There is little information on sex ratio in natural populations of Japanese hynobiid salamanders. To help fill this gap, we conducted a long-term census of a population of Hynobius tokyoensis from 1976 to 1985 and estimated the adult sex ratio (the proportion of males within the population) at 0.578 from data gathered during eight non-breeding seasons. The bootstrap 95% confidence interval was 0.516–0.641. The study showed that the adult sex ratio was significantly biased toward males in the population studied; it was nearly 1.5:1 (males:females). Age at first reproduction is 1 year later in females, which suggests that the most likely factor driving the unbalanced sex ratio is the differential maturation rate between the sexes.

© 2011 by The Herpetological Society of Japan
Tamotsu Kusano and Masafumi Inoue "Adult Sex Ratio of a Population of the Japanese Salamander, Hynobius tokyoensis (Caudata: Hynobiidae)," Current Herpetology 30(2), 129-135, (1 December 2011). https://doi.org/10.3105/hsj.30.129
Accepted: 1 October 2011; Published: 1 December 2011
KEYWORDS
adult sex ratio
Differential maturation rate
Hynobius tokyoensis
Male-biased ratio
Population-level sex ratio
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