A morphometric model to predict the sex of virginia rails (Rallus limicola)
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-2013
Department
College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science
Abstract
Virginia rails (Rallus limicola) are secretive marsh birds found in freshwater wetlands across much of North American. There is currently no known way to differentiate between the sexes in the field. We suggest the use of morphometric discriminant analysis as an effective method to separate males and females. We compared the length of the culmen, tarsus, wing chord, and middle toe of live birds captured at Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge (Ottawa Co., OH) during the springs of 2002-2011 and museum specimens measured the summer of 2011. We genetically determined the sex of a subset of samples using an intronic region of the chromo-helicase-DNA-binding gene on the Z and W chromosomes. For live birds, 81% of males and 70% of females were classified correctly; and for museum specimens, 71% of males and 80% of females were classified correctly. This technique provides an accurate and simple method of determining Virginia rail sex that can contribute to efforts to better understand population demographics.
Publication Title
Wildlife Society Bulletin
Recommended Citation
Fournier, A.,
Sheildcastle, M.,
Fries, A.,
&
Bump, J. K.
(2013).
A morphometric model to predict the sex of virginia rails (Rallus limicola).
Wildlife Society Bulletin,
37(4), 881-886.
http://doi.org/10.1002/wsb.323
Retrieved from: https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/michigantech-p/3936
Publisher's Statement
© 2013 The Wildlife Society. Publisher’s version of record: https://doi.org/10.1002/wsb.323