scholarly journals Facultative adjustment of paternal care in the face of female infidelity in dunnocks

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eduardo S. A. Santos ◽  
Shinichi Nakagawa
Keyword(s):  
Parental Care ◽  
Statistical Approach ◽  
Paternal Care ◽  
Fitness Costs ◽  
Fledging Success ◽  
Male Effect ◽  
Socially Monogamous ◽  
The Face ◽  
Fitness Benefits ◽  
Certainty Of Paternity

AbstractA much-debated issue is whether or not males should reduce parental care when they lose paternity (i.e. the certainty of paternity hypothesis). While there is general support for this relationship across species, within-population evidence is still contentious. Among the main reasons behind such problem is the confusion discerning between-from within-individual patterns. Here, we tested this hypothesis empirically by investigating the parental care of male dunnocks (Prunella modularis) in relation to paternity. We used a thorough dataset of observations in a wild population, genetic parentage, and a within-subject centring statistical approach to disentangle paternal care adjustment within-male and between males. We found support for the certainty of paternity hypothesis, as there was evidence for within-male adjustment in paternal care when socially monogamous males lost paternity to extra-pair sires. There was little evidence of a between-male effect overall. Our findings show that monogamous males adjust paternal care when paired to the same female partner. We also show that – in monogamous broods – the proportion of provisioning visits made by males yields fitness benefits in terms of fledging success. Our results suggest that socially monogamous females that engage in extra-pair behaviour may suffer fitness costs, as their partners’ reduction in paternal care can negatively affect fledging success.

PARENTAL CARE AND PARENTAGE IN MONOGAMOUS GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKERS (PICOIDES MAJOR) AND MIDDLE SPOTTED WOODPECKERS (PICOIDES MEDIUS)

Behaviour ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 138 (10) ◽  
pp. 1259-1285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans Winkler ◽  
Klaus Michalek
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Parental Care ◽  
Dna Fingerprinting ◽  
Paternal Care ◽  
Brood Care ◽  
Low Frequencies ◽  
Male Investment ◽  
Paternal Effort ◽  
Certainty Of Paternity ◽  
Very High

AbstractPaternal effort is high in some monogamous mating systems. Trivers' (1972) model predicts that high male investment in brood care should evolve only when males have a high certainty of paternity. For this study, we chose two woodpecker species: the great spotted woodpecker (Picoides major) and the middle spotted woodpecker (Picoides medius). Both species were socially monogamous despite a very high breeding density in the study area. We used DNA fingerprinting to determine whether these two species were also genetically monogamous. We found that in great spotted and middle spotted woodpeckers paternal effort was high. Multi-locus DNA-fingerprinting showed that its actual paternity was also very high. In P. major all 161 young from 36 broods and in P. medius all 61 young from 13 broods were sired by the male feeding at the nest hole. There were also no cases of intraspecific brood parasitism or quasi parasitism (P. major: 114 chicks from 24 broods; P.medius: 33 chicks from 8 broods). We further found no case of mate switching during the fertile period of the female. Great spotted and middle spotted woodpeckers are typical of a group of monogamous nonpasserine birds with high male investment in brood care having low frequencies of EPP. We did not find efficient paternity guards. High certainty of paternity may be explained by paternal care being essential for female reproductive success, as in many seabirds and birds of prey. Females rarely engage in extra-pair copulations probably because they are constrained by male care. Males in both species spend little effort in acquiring mates as well as in extrapair copulations. They expend their reproductive effort in defending territories and in parental care. Females compete intensely with members of their own sex for pair formation before the time of frequent copulation. Choosing and securing a high quality partner is the only possibility to achieve high reproductive success for both sexes.

scholarly journals Male Chestnut-Collared Longspurs are Essential for Nestling Survival: A Removal Study

The Condor ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 105 (1) ◽  
pp. 154-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon E. Lynn ◽  
John C. Wingfield
Keyword(s):  
Paternal Care ◽  
Steroid Hormone ◽  
Biparental Care ◽  
Male Behavior ◽  
Fledging Success ◽  
Ecological Variables ◽  
Socially Monogamous ◽  
Nestling Survival

Abstract We examined the value of paternal care in the socially monogamous Chestnut-collared Longspur (Calcarius ornatus). We removed parental males from their territories after eggs hatched, and compared fledging success of these nests with that of nests at which both parents attended young. We demonstrate that males were essential for nestling survival: no young fledged from female-only nests. Thus, constraints of the breeding environment apparently impose a need for biparental care in this species. We relate this study to previous research, and suggest that ecological variables constraining males to care for young may also dictate patterns of male behavior in response to the steroid hormone testosterone. Los Machos de Calcarius ornatus son Indispensables para la Supervivencia de los Pichones: Un Estudio de Remoción Resumen. Examinamos el valor del cuidado paterno en Calcarius ornatus, una especie socialmente monógama. Removimos machos parentales de sus territorios después de la eclosión de los huevos, y comparamos el éxito de emplumamiento de esos nidos con nidos en los que los dos padres cuidaron de los pichones. Demostramos que los machos fueron esenciales para la supervivencia de los pichones pues ningún pichón emplumó en nidos atendidos sólo por hembras. Por lo tanto, las limitantes del ambiente reproductivo aparentemente imponen la necesidad del cuidado biparental en esta especie. Relacionamos este estudio con investigaciones previas y sugerimos que las variables ecológicas que limitan a los machos a cuidar de los pichones podrían también dictar los patrones de comportamiento de los machos como respuesta a la hormona esteroide testosterona.

scholarly journals Nest defense in the face of cuckoldry: evolutionary rather than facultative adaptation to chronic paternity loss

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Holger Zimmermann ◽  
Karoline Fritzsche ◽  
Jonathan M. Henshaw ◽  
Cyprian Katongo ◽  
Taylor Banda ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Parental Care ◽  
Cichlid Fish ◽  
Nest Defense ◽  
Stabilizing Selection ◽  
Study Group ◽  
Evolutionary Response ◽  
Socially Monogamous ◽  
The Face ◽  
Primary Form

Abstract Background Raising unrelated offspring is typically wasteful of parental resources and so individuals are expected to reduce or maintain low levels of parental effort when their parentage is low. This can involve facultative, flexible adjustments of parental care to cues of lost parentage in the current brood, stabilizing selection for a low level of paternal investment, or an evolutionary reduction in parental investment in response to chronically low parentage. Results We studied parental care in Variabilichromis moorii, a socially monogamous, biparental cichlid fish, whose mating system is characterized by frequent cuckoldry and whose primary form of parental care is offspring defense. We combine field observations with genetic parentage analyses to show that while both parents defend their nest against intruding con- and hetero-specifics, males and females may do so for different reasons. Males in the study group (30 breeding pairs) sired 0–100% (median 83%) of the fry in their nests. Males defended less against immediate threats to the offspring, and more against threats to their territories, which are essential for the males’ future reproductive success. Males also showed no clear relationship between their share of defense and their paternity of the brood. Females, on the other hand, were related to nearly all the offspring under their care, and defended almost equally against all types of threats. Conclusion Overall, males contributed less to defense than females and we suggest that this asymmetry is the result of an evolutionary response by males to chronically high paternity loss in this species. Although most males in the current study group achieved high parentage in their nests, the average paternity in V. moorii, sampled across multiple seasons, is only about 55%. We highlight the importance and complexity of studying nest defense as a form of parental care in systems where defense may serve not only to protect current offspring, but also to ensure future reproductive success by maintaining a territory.

Sex (Similarities and) Differences in Friendship Jealousy

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaimie Krems ◽  
Keelah Williams ◽  
Laureon Allison Watson ◽  
Douglas Kenrick ◽  
Athena Aktipis
Keyword(s):  
Sex Differences ◽  
Cognitive Architecture ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Published Data ◽  
Best Friends ◽  
Adaptive Challenges ◽  
The Face ◽  
Initial Support ◽  
Fitness Benefits ◽  
Material Benefits

Friendships provide material benefits, bolster health, and may help solve adaptive challenges. However, a recurrent obstacle to sustaining those friendships—and thus enjoying many friendship-mediated fitness benefits—is interference from other people. Friendship jealousy may be well-designed for helping both men and women meet the recurrent, adaptive challenge of retaining friends in the face of such third-party interference. Although we thus expect several sex similarities in the general cognitive architecture of friendship jealousy (e.g., it is attuned to friend value), there are also sex differences in friendship structures and historical functions, which might influence the inputs of friendship jealousy (e.g., the value of any one friendship). If so, we should also expect some sex differences in friendship jealousy. Findings from a reanalysis of previously-published data and a new experiment, including both U.S. student and adult community participants (N = 993), provide initial support for three predicted sex differences: women (versus men) report greater friendship jealousy at the prospective loss of best friends to others, men (versus women) report greater friendship jealousy at the prospective loss of acquaintances to others, and men’s (but not women’s) friendship jealousy is enhanced in the context of intergroup contests.

Show me you care: female mate choice based on egg attendance rather than male or territorial traits

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 1054-1064 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anyelet Valencia-Aguilar ◽  
Kelly R Zamudio ◽  
Célio F B Haddad ◽  
Steve M Bogdanowicz ◽  
Cynthia P A Prado
Keyword(s):  
Mate Choice ◽  
Parental Care ◽  
Paternal Care ◽  
Genetic Relatedness ◽  
Female Mate Choice ◽  
Male Reproductive Success ◽  
Offspring Survival ◽  
Territory Quality ◽  
Female Mate

Abstract Female mate choice is often based on male traits, including signals or behaviors, and/or the quality of a male’s territory. In species with obligate paternal care, where care directly affects offspring survival, females may also base their mate choices on the quality of a sire’s care. Here, we quantified male reproductive success in a natural population of the glass frog Hyalinobatrachium cappellei, a species with male parental care, to determine the influence of territory quality, male traits, and paternal care behaviors on female mate choice. We found that attending males have a higher chance of gaining new clutches than nonattending males. Our results indicate that females do not select males based only on body condition, calling persistence, or territory traits. Instead, our findings support the hypothesis that females choose males based on care status. Indeed, males already attending a clutch were 70% more likely to obtain another clutch, and the time to acquire an additional clutch was significantly shorter. We also found that males adjust their parental care effort in response to genetic relatedness by caring only for their own offspring; however, remaining close to unrelated clutches serves as a strategy to attract females and increase chances of successful mating. Thus, males that establish territories that already contain clutches benefit from the signal eggs provide to females.

Certainty of paternity and paternal care in birds: a reply to Dale

1995 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 522-523 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.P. MØLLER ◽  
T.R. BIRKHEAD
Keyword(s):  
Paternal Care ◽  
Certainty Of Paternity

scholarly journals Male-only care and cuckoldry in black coucals: does parenting hamper sex life?

2019 ◽  
Vol 286 (1900) ◽  
pp. 20182789 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ignas Safari ◽  
Wolfgang Goymann ◽  
Hanna Kokko
Keyword(s):  
Parental Care ◽  
Paternal Care ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Life Care ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Mating Opportunities ◽  
Siring Success ◽  
Theoretical Considerations ◽  
Operational Sex Ratios ◽  
Do So

Providing parental care often reduces additional mating opportunities. Paternal care becomes easier to understand if trade-offs between mating and caring remain mild. The black coucalCentropus grilliicombines male-only parental care with 50% of all broods containing young sired by another male. To understand how much caring for offspring reduces a male's chance to sire additional young in other males' nests, we matched the production of extra-pair young in each nest with the periods during which potential extra-pair sires were either caring for offspring themselves or when they had no own offspring to care for. We found that males which cared for a clutch were not fully excluded from the pool of competitors for siring young in other males' nests. Instead, the relative siring success showed a temporary dip. Males were approximately 17% less likely to sire young in other males' nests while they were incubating, about 48% less likely to do so while feeding nestlings, followed by 26% when feeding fledglings, compared to the success of males that currently did not care for offspring. These results suggest that real-life care situations by males may involve trade-off structures that differ from, and are less strict than those frequently employed in theoretical considerations of operational sex ratios, sex roles and parenting decisions.

scholarly journals Fitness Benefits of Mate Choice for Compatibility in a Socially Monogamous Species

PLoS Biology ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. e1002248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malika Ihle ◽  
Bart Kempenaers ◽  
Wolfgang Forstmeier
Keyword(s):  
Mate Choice ◽  
Monogamous Species ◽  
Socially Monogamous ◽  
Fitness Benefits

scholarly journals Why inclusive fitness can make it adaptive to produce less fit extra-pair offspring

2015 ◽  
Vol 282 (1801) ◽  
pp. 20142716 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jussi Lehtonen ◽  
Hanna Kokko
Keyword(s):  
Inclusive Fitness ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Reproductive Season ◽  
Breeding Systems ◽  
Social Partner ◽  
Social Monogamy ◽  
Monogamous Species ◽  
Social Partners ◽  
Socially Monogamous ◽  
Fitness Benefits

Social monogamy predominates in avian breeding systems, but most socially monogamous species engage in promiscuous extra-pair copulations (EPCs). The reasons behind this remain debated, and recent empirical work has uncovered patterns that do not seem to fit existing hypotheses. In particular, some results seem to contradict the inbreeding avoidance hypothesis: females can prefer extra-pair partners that are more closely related to them than their social partners, and extra-pair young can have lower fitness than within-pair young. Motivated by these studies, we show that such results can become explicable when an asymmetry in inbreeding tolerance between monogamy and polygamy is extended to species that combine both strategies within a single reproductive season. Under fairly general conditions, it can be adaptive for a female to choose an unrelated social partner, but inbreed with an extra-pair partner. Inbreeding depression is compensated for by inclusive fitness benefits, which are only fully realized in EPCs. We also show that if a female has already formed a suboptimal social bond, there are scenarios where it is beneficial to engage in EPCs with less related males, and others where EPCs with more related males increase her inclusive fitness. This has implications for detecting general relatedness or fitness trends when averaged over several species.

scholarly journals The Importance Of Pre-Hatching Paternal Care On Offspring Fitness In Burying Beetle, Nicrophorus Vespilloides Herbst.

1970 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-54
Author(s):  
Sharmin Musa
Keyword(s):  
Treatment Group ◽  
Parental Care ◽  
Paternal Care ◽  
Male Parent ◽  
Direct Care ◽  
Removal Experiment ◽  
Burying Beetle ◽  
Offspring Fitness ◽  
Nicrophorus Vespilloides ◽  
Positive Effect

A male-removal experiment was performed to determine if the value of male parental care depended on the timing of the help. In the experiment male parent was removed before the carcass was prepared for breeding, after partial carcass preparation, after complete carcass preparation, before direct care for the larvae and males were allowed to disperse naturally after caring for the larvae. It was found that where the male provided complete pre-hatching care or both preand post-hatching care offspring were larger and in better condition. Mass of offspring at eclosion was affected by male removal (F3,1266 = 5.087, p = 0.002) though size of offspring was not affected by the treatment group. Complete prehatching care had a positive effect on development compared to limited care (F3, 1267 = 8.501, p < 0.000) but this effect disappeared if males remained after the larvae hatched. Larval survivorship did not vary among treatments (F3,122 = 0.531, p = 0.662).  

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