Publication Type: | Journal Article |
Year of Publication: | 1986 |
Authors: | Davies, NB, Houston, AI |
Journal: | Journal of Animal Ecology |
Volume: | 55 |
Issue: | 1 |
Date Published: | 1986 |
ISBN Number: | 00218790 |
Keywords: | Prunella, Prunella modularis, Prunellidae |
Abstract: | (1) Male dunnocks have greatest reproductive success with polygyny and least with cooperative polyandry. The reverse is true for females, who have least success with polygyny and greatest with cooperative polyandry. (2) These measures of reproductive success make good sense of the observed conflicts in behaviour seen between individuals. (3) We suggest that the variable mating system reflects different outcomes of sexual conflict. In polygyny, males gain an advantage at the expense of females. In cooperative polyandry, females gain at the expense of males. Monogamy and polygynandry are mating systems in which neither sex is able to gain an advantage at the expense of the other. (4) In polyandry, we consider whether an alpha male should allow a beta male to copulate with the female. The benefit of cooperation is increased production of young; the cost is shared paternity. We conclude that cooperation is unstable because an alpha male cannot enforce a limit on the beta male's share of paternity and, because survival is low, the same two individuals do not have sufficient repeated interactions for cooperation to evolve. |
URL: | http://www.jstor.org/stable/4698 |
Short Title: | Journal of Animal Ecology |
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