Disputas: Priyank Sharad Nimje

Priyank Sharad Nimje disputerer 16. november for doktorgraden med avhandlingen “The effect of social organization on genetic estimates of fitness in Eurasian beaver Castor fiber”.


16 Nov

Praktisk informasjon

  • Dato: 16 november 2018
  • Tid: kl. 11.00 - 16.00
  • Sted: Bø, Auditorium 4-311A
  • Last ned kalenderfil
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    Til å bedømme avhandlingen er oppnevnt:

    • Første opponent: Professor Glynnis A. Hood, University of Alberta
    • Andre opponent: Førsteamanuensis Duško Ćirović, University of Belgrade
    • Administrator av komiteen: Professor Hans Renssen, USN

    Veiledere

    • Hovedveileder for doktorgradsarbeidet har vært Professor Frank Rosell, USN, og biveiledere har vært professor Andreas Zedrosser og førsteamanuensis Mona Sæbø, USN.

       


    Program:

    Kl 11.00 Prøveforelesning

    Tema for prøveforelesning:

    “Causes/consequences of diversification of reproductive strategies in mammals”


    Kl 12.15 Disputas

    Prøveforelesning og disputas er åpen for alle interesserte. 

     

Graden avlegges ved  Universitetet i Sørøst-Norge (USN), Fakultet for teknologi, naturvitenskap og maritime fag.

Om avhandlingen

I studied relationship between genetics and behaviour of Eurasian beavers; specifically the mating system, mate choice behaviour.

During my research, I found that beavers are socially monogamous species, and most of them remain faithful to their partners throughout their life. Mr. Priyank Sharad Nimje - PhD-student

However, some beavers especially the old females that have produced less than average number of kits throughout their lifetime, participate in extra-pair copulation with intruders, always being younger male beavers living in nearby territory. There can be several explanations to it, i.e. either old female beavers likely do it as a last resort to increase the progeny and use other young male beavers as toy-boys, or the old male beavers were not strong enough to protect their partners from young intruders.

My results also suggested that we learn more about beavers when we study them as a couple, since they live together with their partners until one of the partners dies.

I also found that the old beavers, and the beavers living near the empty territory were more successful at acquiring it, as compared to the young beavers, and the beavers living away from the available territory.

Finally, in case of mate choice, I found that beavers preferred similar aged individuals as partners, likely because they are more compatible with each other.

Though my research suggests, beavers favour more inbred individuals as partners; the results were uncertain, hence, more research in this area is required.