Large eastern grey kangaroo males are dominant but do not monopolize matings

Introduction to topical collection “Measuring individual reproductive success in the wild”

“…For most species, male reproductive success is less wellquantified than female reproductive success, due to considerable challenges identified in this collection (Curren et al 2022;Foroughirad et al 2022;Montana et al 2022;Viblanc et al 2022). There are some exceptions, such as primate groups where extra-group paternities are rare or absent (Wikberg et al 2022).…”

“…The Topical Collection reports many important advances in our understanding of what drives individual reproductive success in the wild. For example, well-established male dominance relationships are often thought to correlate strongly with reproductive success, but studies on spotted hyenas (Curren et al 2022), white-faced capuchins (Wikberg et al 2022) and eastern grey kangaroos (Montana et al 2022) reveal a tenuous correlation due to complexities of social living. In capuchins, subordinate males sometimes had similar reproductive success to the long-term alpha male because alpha males avoid mating with their mature daughters (Wikberg et al 2022).…”

Reproductive skews of territorial species in heterogeneous landscapes

“…Within groups, dominant individuals may monopolize resources and mating opportunities (Murray et al 2007, Spong et al 2008, Saltzman et al 2009, Josi et al 2021). This observation further challenges the ideal despotic model because in most group‐living species, dominants cannot be despotic, they have to make concessions to promote the continued attachment of group mates (Johnstone 2000, Montana et al 2022). Without concessions, subordinates leave the group (Datta 1988, Buston and Zink 2009).…”