La polyandrie chez les oiseaux

Polyandry in which one female forms either simultaneous or sequential pair bonds with more than one male is a rare vertebrate mateship system. Prior to 1972 only two cases were known with certainty among birds. All other reports of polyandry were based on inadequate information. Recently, polyandry has been demonstrated in several additional species. Even so, it is rare in the bird world (about two percent of bird species), more than 90 percent of birds being socially monogamous (pairing remains intact during the breeding season, at least).
In this article, after a presentation of polyandry and its advantages, we publish here the description of the first case of polyandry in Griffon Vulture reported in 2002 by Jacques Carlon and Serge Raoult in the review La Marie-Blanque (vol.10, 2002:26-27).