We tried using morphometrics to determine sex for a population of Common Ravens (Corvus corax) in northwestern Wyoming. We attempted to correlate 13 external measurements to sex using discriminant function analyses. Sex was verified with a DNA test that identified females with 2 PCR-amplified gene copies (1 each from the W and Z chromosomes) and males with 1 gene copy (only Z chromosome). We created a predictive model of sex of ravens for easy field use. We found that by using 2 separate discriminant functions with footpad length and body mass measurements simultaneously, we were able to correctly classify 97% of female samples, 91% of male samples, and had an unknown category that included 15% of samples.
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