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1 March 2008 Using Morphometrics To Determine the Sex of Common Ravens
Bryan Bedrosian, Jeannette Loutsch, Derek Craighead
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Abstract

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.

Bryan Bedrosian, Jeannette Loutsch, and Derek Craighead "Using Morphometrics To Determine the Sex of Common Ravens," Northwestern Naturalist 89(1), 46-52, (1 March 2008). https://doi.org/10.1898/1051-1733(2008)89[46:UMTDTS]2.0.CO;2
Received: 2 July 2007; Accepted: 1 December 2007; Published: 1 March 2008
KEYWORDS
Common Raven
Corvus corax
discriminant function
DNA isolation
gender
sexing
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