Extra-pair behaviour

Kempenaers, Bart; Schlicht, Emmi

doi:10.1007/978-3-642-02624-9_13

Cited by 47 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 201 publications

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“…Such high levels of paternity loss may result from a low degree of breeding synchrony and multiple-broodedness [7,49] in this species. However, paternal care did not differ between males that lost paternity and those that did not, suggesting that males did not adjust the degree of paternal care to paternity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parental care, loss of paternity and circulating levels of testosterone and corticosterone in a socially monogamous song bird

2014

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IntroductionIn biparental birds testosterone levels of males are typically high during the mating phase and decrease during the parental phase. Testosterone implants may enhance mating behaviors, increase the likelihood of males to engage in extra-pair mating behavior and may reduce paternal care. Thus, sex steroids such as testosterone influence reproductive behaviors. Little is known, however, as to whether the more subtle differences in physiological concentrations of testosterone that occur between individuals are related to differences in paternal care, extra-pair behavior, and genetic paternity between those males. Here, we investigate these relationships in the male black redstart (Phoenicurus ochruros), a socially monogamous songbird with a low breeding synchrony. We used nestling provisioning as a proxy for parental care behavior and genetic paternity loss as a proxy for the efficiency of mate-guarding.ResultsThere was no relationship between nestling provisioning and paternity loss of males. Baseline and gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH)-induced levels of testosterone, but not baseline corticosterone, were significantly higher during the mating than during the provisioning phase. Males fed more often when temperatures decreased and fed less when they sang more, but we found no correlation between parental behavior and baseline or GnRH-induced testosterone, and baseline corticosterone – both measured during either the mating or the parental phase. However, males that experienced loss of paternity had lower levels of testosterone during the provisioning phase than males that did not lose paternity. Further, males that lost paternity also expressed higher baseline levels of corticosterone.ConclusionsPhysiological differences in testosterone or baseline corticosterone were not related to differences in parental care, suggesting that the variation of testosterone within a physiological range may not relate to the degree of paternal care in this species. However, the profile of both hormones may indicate quality traits that influence the likelihood of the respective male to lose paternity.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parental care, loss of paternity and circulating levels of testosterone and corticosterone in a socially monogamous song bird

2014

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“…All cases of EPP where the child did not survive to adulthood or did not reproduce as an adult would go undetected. Based on examples in animals, it is at least conceivable that extra-pair offspring had a lower fitness than within-pair children [1]. Indeed, in humans it has been observed that paternal investment is positively related to both face and odour similarities between fathers and children, and that such discriminative paternal investment was linked to the children's health, thereby suggesting that extra-pair children might have a reduced fitness in humans too [73].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Over recent decades, it has been shown that both males and females in many pair-bonding species can seek out extra-pair copulations (EPCs) [1]. Although it has long been appreciated that selection will favour males to seek such EPCs, especially when these can be acquired at low cost [2], EPCs may also come with various distinct advantages for females, ranging from an improved genetic quality of offspring to insurance against male infertility, greater access to material resources and increased protection against infanticide [3][4][5][6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, increased EPC behaviour by females may be selected for as a correlated evolutionary response of selection on males to seek EPP [7], even when EPCs are actually detrimental to females. Hence, EPCs are likely to be driven by a combination of male and female interests [1,8]. Interestingly, several studies have shown that benefits of EPC might also apply to humans, with extra-pair paternity (EPP) sometimes being associated with clear reproductive and material benefits, particularly in some traditional small-scale societies [9,10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Low historical rates of cuckoldry in a Western European human population traced by Y-chromosome and genealogical data

et al. 2013

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Recent evidence suggests that seeking out extra-pair paternity (EPP) can be a viable alternative reproductive strategy for both males and females in many pair-bonded species, including humans. Accurate data on EPP rates in humans, however, are scant and mostly restricted to extant populations. Here, we provide the first large-scale, unbiased genetic study of historical EPP rates in a Western European human population based on combining Y-chromosomal data to infer genetic patrilineages with genealogical and surname data, which reflect known historical presumed paternity. Using two independent methods, we estimate that over the last few centuries, EPP rates in Flanders (Belgium) were only around 1-2% per generation. This figure is substantially lower than the 8-30% per generation reported in some behavioural studies on historical EPP rates, but comparable with the rates reported by other genetic studies of contemporary Western European populations. These results suggest that human EPP rates have not changed substantially during the last 400 years in Flanders and imply that legal genealogies rarely differ from the biological ones. This result has significant implications for a diverse set of fields, including human population genetics, historical demography, forensic science and human sociobiology.

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“…Second, to provide conceptual clarity, we in our study focused on inbreeding effects and female choice, thus intentionally omitting other factors that can conceivably impact EPP. The list includes correlated selection based on male fitness [44], male behavioural responses to cues of lower paternity [1,12,32,45], insurance against infertility [1][2][3] and issues of genetic compatibility [3,15]. Which sex has power to decide on whether a copulation occurs is also of relevance; our model gives the baseline expectation in female preferences for social and extra-pair mate choice, if inbreeding is the focal issue.…”

Section: (D) Relatedness Structurementioning

confidence: 99%

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

Lehtonen

Kokko

2015

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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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 extrapair 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.

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Extra-pair behaviour

Cited by 47 publications

References 201 publications

Parental care, loss of paternity and circulating levels of testosterone and corticosterone in a socially monogamous song bird

Parental care, loss of paternity and circulating levels of testosterone and corticosterone in a socially monogamous song bird

Low historical rates of cuckoldry in a Western European human population traced by Y-chromosome and genealogical data

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

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