Studies on the Karyotype of the Red-Tailed Hawk (Buteo Jamaicensis)
Abstract
Feather pulp from growing body feathers of Red-tailed Hawks (Buteo jamaicensis) located at the Raptor Center at the University of California, Davis, was treated in a hypotonic solution and fixative, then squashed and stained with Giemsa. The resulting spreads showed a majority of 34 pairs (2n=68). The sex chromosomes were the fourth pair of the series; the female had heterogametic and the male homogametic pairs. The Common buzzard (Buteo buteo), reported by an earlier investigator, had a diploid number of 68 with the sex chromosome pair number as fourth in the series. Analytical methods showed that subjective judgment of the relative size of the chromosomes is fairly accurate, though ideally it would be best to analyze before the karyotypes are permanently mounted.
