scholarly journals Paternal care and litter size coevolution in mammals

2016 ◽  
Vol 283 (1829) ◽  
pp. 20160140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula Stockley ◽  
Liane Hobson
Keyword(s):  
Litter Size ◽  
Mating Systems ◽  
Life History Traits ◽  
Paternal Care ◽  
Biparental Care ◽  
Offspring Survival ◽  
Offspring Production ◽  
Male Care ◽  
Socially Monogamous ◽  
Social Behaviours

Biparental care of offspring occurs in diverse mammalian genera and is particularly common among species with socially monogamous mating systems. Despite numerous well-documented examples, however, the evolutionary causes and consequences of paternal care in mammals are not well understood. Here, we investigate the evolution of paternal care in relation to offspring production. Using comparative analyses to test for evidence of evolutionary associations between male care and life-history traits, we explore if biparental care is likely to have evolved because of the importance of male care to offspring survival, or if evolutionary increases in offspring production are likely to result from the evolution of biparental care. Overall, we find no evidence that paternal care has evolved in response to benefits of supporting females to rear particularly costly large offspring or litters. Rather, our findings suggest that increases in offspring production are more likely to follow the evolution of paternal care, specifically where males contribute depreciable investment such as provisioning young. Through coevolution with litter size, we conclude that paternal care in mammals is likely to play an important role in stabilizing monogamous mating systems and could ultimately promote the evolution of complex social behaviours.

scholarly journals Females prefer the calls of better fathers in a Neotropical frog with biparental care

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beth A Pettitt ◽  
Godfrey R Bourne ◽  
Mark A Bee
Keyword(s):  
Paternal Care ◽  
Biparental Care ◽  
Offspring Survival ◽  
Differential Allocation ◽  
Secondary Sexual Traits ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Good Parent ◽  
Direct Benefits ◽  
Male Care ◽  
Sexual Traits

Abstract Male secondary sexual traits potentially function as indicators of direct or indirect fitness benefits to females. Direct benefits, such as paternal care, may be especially important to females in species with biparental care. In an experimental field study of the golden rocket frog (Anomaloglossus beebei), a Neotropical species with biparental care, we tested predictions from four hypotheses proposed to explain the evolutionary relationship between male secondary sexual traits and paternal care quality (the “good parent,” “differential allocation,” “trade-off,” and “essential male care” hypotheses). We examined: 1) the influence of paternal care on offspring survival, 2) the relationships between male calls and paternal care, maternal care, and opportunities for males to acquire multiple mates, and 3) female preferences for three acoustic properties of male advertisement calls. Our results reveal that paternal care positively impacts offspring survival, that males producing longer calls also provide higher-quality paternal care in the form of greater egg attendance and territory defense, and that females prefer longer calls. Females did not discriminate among potential mates based on differences in dominant frequency or call rate. These findings, which suggest male advertisement calls are indicators of potential direct benefits to females in the form of paternal care, are consistent with the good parent hypothesis and inconsistent with the trade-off, differential allocation, and essential male care hypotheses.

scholarly journals Sperm competition games when males invest in paternal care

2017 ◽  
Vol 284 (1860) ◽  
pp. 20171266 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gustavo S. Requena ◽  
Suzanne H. Alonzo
Keyword(s):  
Sperm Competition ◽  
Mating Systems ◽  
Paternal Care ◽  
Offspring Survival ◽  
Parental Effort ◽  
Integrative Framework ◽  
Female Promiscuity ◽  
Male Care ◽  
The Cost ◽  
The Relationship

Sperm competition games investigate how males partition limited resources between pre- and post-copulatory competition. Although extensive research has explored how various aspects of mating systems affect this allocation, male allocation between mating, fertilization and parental effort has not previously been considered. Yet, paternal care can be energetically expensive and males are generally predicted to adjust their parental effort in response to expected paternity. Here, we incorporate parental effort into sperm competition games, particularly exploring how the relationship between paternal care and offspring survival affects sperm competition and the relationship between paternity and paternal care. Our results support existing expectations that (i) fertilization effort should increase with female promiscuity and (ii) paternal care should increase with expected paternity. However, our analyses also reveal that the cost of male care can drive the strength of these patterns. When paternal behaviour is energetically costly, increased allocation to parental effort constrains allocation to fertilization effort. As paternal care becomes less costly, the association between paternity and paternal care weakens and may even be absent. By explicitly considering variation in sperm competition and the cost of male care, our model provides an integrative framework for predicting the interaction between paternal care and patterns of paternity.

scholarly journals Correlates of genetic monogamy in socially monogamous mammals: insights from Azara's owl monkeys

2014 ◽  
Vol 281 (1782) ◽  
pp. 20140195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maren Huck ◽  
Eduardo Fernandez-Duque ◽  
Paul Babb ◽  
Theodore Schurr
Keyword(s):  
Mating System ◽  
Mating Systems ◽  
Paternal Care ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Pair Bond ◽  
Social Monogamy ◽  
Genetic Monogamy ◽  
Male Care ◽  
Socially Monogamous ◽  
Genetic Mating System

Understanding the evolution of mating systems, a central topic in evolutionary biology for more than 50 years, requires examining the genetic consequences of mating and the relationships between social systems and mating systems. Among pair-living mammals, where genetic monogamy is extremely rare, the extent of extra-group paternity rates has been associated with male participation in infant care, strength of the pair bond and length of the breeding season. This study evaluated the relationship between two of those factors and the genetic mating system of socially monogamous mammals, testing predictions that male care and strength of pair bond would be negatively correlated with rates of extra-pair paternity (EPP). Autosomal microsatellite analyses provide evidence for genetic monogamy in a pair-living primate with bi-parental care, the Azara's owl monkey ( Aotus azarae ) . A phylogenetically corrected generalized least square analysis was used to relate male care and strength of the pair bond to their genetic mating system (i.e. proportions of EPP) in 15 socially monogamous mammalian species. The intensity of male care was correlated with EPP rates in mammals, while strength of pair bond failed to reach statistical significance. Our analyses show that, once social monogamy has evolved, paternal care, and potentially also close bonds, may facilitate the evolution of genetic monogamy.

scholarly journals The costs and benefits of paternal care in fish: a meta-analysis

2020 ◽  
Vol 287 (1935) ◽  
pp. 20201759
Author(s):  
Rebecca L. Goldberg ◽  
Philip A. Downing ◽  
Ashleigh S. Griffin ◽  
Jonathan P. Green
Keyword(s):  
Fish Species ◽  
Paternal Care ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Offspring Survival ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
Limited Evidence ◽  
Selective Pressures ◽  
Male Condition ◽  
High Prevalence ◽  
Male Care

Male-only parental care, while rare in most animals, is a widespread strategy within teleost fish. The costs and benefits to males of acting as sole carer are highly variable among fish species making it challenging to determine the selective pressures driving the evolution of male-only care to such a high prevalence. We conducted a phylogenetic meta-analysis to examine the costs and benefits of paternal care across fish species. We found no evidence that providing care negatively affects male condition. In contrast with other taxa, we also found limited evidence that male care has evolved as a strategy to improve offspring survival. Instead, we found that males already caring for a brood are preferred by females and that this preference is strongest in those species in which males work harder to care for larger broods. Thus, in fish, investment in offspring care does not constrain a male's mating success but rather augments it, suggesting that the relatively high prevalence of male-only care in fish may be in part explained by sexual selection through female preference for caring males.

scholarly journals Perceived threat to paternity reduces likelihood of paternal provisioning in house wrens

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (5) ◽  
pp. 1336-1343 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachael A DiSciullo ◽  
Charles F Thompson ◽  
Scott K Sakaluk
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits ◽  
Mating Systems ◽  
Paternal Care ◽  
Genetic Relatedness ◽  
Perceived Threat ◽  
Biparental Care ◽  
Young Males ◽  
House Wrens ◽  
Feeding Effort ◽  
Male House

Abstract Biparental care is a critical and, occasionally, unequally shared obligation that ensures that young survive to maturity. Such care may be complicated in systems in which one parent, typically the male, is unsure of his genetic relatedness to the young. Males may reduce paternal provisioning when full paternity is not assured, as occurs in mating systems in which females engage in extrapair copulations. Moreover, other factors independent of extrapair matings, such as male personality traits, likely also affect the level of paternal care. In this study, we determined the effect of a paternity threat event (i.e., a conspecific or a heterospecific territory intrusion) and male personality (i.e., the level of aggressiveness) on provisioning effort by male house wrens (Troglodytes aedon). Males were more likely to attack a conspecific intruder than a heterospecific intruder. Males that were exposed to a conspecific intruder were less likely to provision young at all. Of those males that did feed the young in their nest, male aggressiveness did not relate to feeding effort. These findings suggest that the likelihood of paternal care is reduced by perceived threats to paternity but that the costs of not feeding potentially multisired young are high and feeding efforts are unrelated to male personality.

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 Polyandry enhances offspring survival in an infanticidal species

2009 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ines Klemme ◽  
Hannu Ylönen
Keyword(s):  
Mating Systems ◽  
Multiple Mating ◽  
Empirical Test ◽  
Myodes Glareolus ◽  
Offspring Survival ◽  
Bank Voles ◽  
Female Counterstrategy ◽  
Fitness Benefits ◽  
Selection For ◽  
Genetic Fitness

The adaptive significance of polyandry is an intensely debated subject in sexual selection. For species with male infanticidal behaviour, it has been hypothesized that polyandry evolved as female counterstrategy to offspring loss: by mating with multiple males, females may conceal paternity and so prevent males from killing putative offspring. Here we present, to our knowledge, the first empirical test of this hypothesis in a combined laboratory and field study, and show that multiple mating seems to reduce the risk of infanticide in female bank voles Myodes glareolus . Our findings thus indicate that females of species with non-resource based mating systems, in which males provide nothing but sperm, but commit infanticide, can gain non-genetic fitness benefits from polyandry.

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.

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