IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/beheco/v26y2015i6p1486-1494..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Adjustment of costly extra-group paternity according to inbreeding risk in a cooperative mammal

Author

Listed:
  • Hazel J. Nichols
  • Michael A. Cant
  • Jennifer L. Sanderson

Abstract

Females of many animal species seek mating opportunities with multiple males, despite being able to obtain sufficient sperm to father their offspring from a single male. In animals that live in stable social groups, females often choose to mate outside their group resulting in extra-group paternity (EGP). One reason proposed to explain female choice for extra-group males is to obtain compatible genes, for example, in order to avoid inbreeding depression in offspring. The benefits of such extra-group paternities could be substantial if they result in fitter, outbred offspring. However, avoiding inbreeding in this way could be costly for females, for example, through retaliation by cuckolded males or through receiving aggression while prospecting for extra-group mating opportunities. We investigate the costs and benefits of EGP in the banded mongoose Mungos mungo, a cooperatively breeding mammal in which within-group mates are sometimes close relatives. We find that pups born to females that mate with extra-group males are more genetically heterozygous are heavier and are more likely to survive to independence than pups born to females that mate within their group. However, extra-group matings also involve substantial costs as they occur during violent encounters that sometimes result in injury and death. This appears to lead femalebanded mongooses to adaptively adjust EGP levels according to the current risk of inbreeding associated with mating within the group. For group-living animals, the costs of intergroup interactions may help to explain variation in both inbreeding rates and EGP within and between species.

Suggested Citation

  • Hazel J. Nichols & Michael A. Cant & Jennifer L. Sanderson, 2015. "Adjustment of costly extra-group paternity according to inbreeding risk in a cooperative mammal," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 26(6), pages 1486-1494.
  • Handle: RePEc:oup:beheco:v:26:y:2015:i:6:p:1486-1494.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/beheco/arv095
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sarah J. Hodge & Matthew B.V. Bell & Francis Mwanguhya & Solomon Kyabulima & Ruth C. Waldick & Andy F. Russell, 2009. "Maternal weight, offspring competitive ability, and the evolution of communal breeding," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 20(4), pages 729-735.
    2. J. I. Hoffman & J. Forcada & P. N. Trathan & W. Amos, 2007. "Female fur seals show active choice for males that are heterozygous and unrelated," Nature, Nature, vol. 445(7130), pages 912-914, February.
    3. Aneta Arct & Szymon M. Drobniak & Mariusz Cichoń, 2015. "Genetic similarity between mates predicts extrapair paternity—a meta-analysis of bird studies," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 26(4), pages 959-968.
    4. Roman D. Furrer & Solomon Kyabulima & Erik P. Willems & Michael A. Cant & Marta B. Manser, 2011. "Location and group size influence decisions in simulated intergroup encounters in banded mongooses," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 22(3), pages 493-500.
    5. Stefan M. Suter & Joanna Bielańska & Sabine Röthlin-Spillmann & Ludivine Strambini & Dietrich R. Meyer, 2009. "The cost of infidelity to female reed buntings," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 20(3), pages 601-608.
    6. Katharina Foerster & Kaspar Delhey & Arild Johnsen & Jan T. Lifjeld & Bart Kempenaers, 2003. "Females increase offspring heterozygosity and fitness through extra-pair matings," Nature, Nature, vol. 425(6959), pages 714-717, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Oded Berger-Tal & Alison L Greggor & Biljana Macura & Carrie Ann Adams & Arden Blumenthal & Amos Bouskila & Ulrika Candolin & Carolina Doran & Esteban Fernández-Juricic & Kiyoko M Gotanda & Catherine , 2019. "Systematic reviews and maps as tools for applying behavioral ecology to management and policy," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 30(1), pages 1-8.
    2. Daiping Wang & Wolfgang Forstmeier & Mihai Valcu & Niels J Dingemanse & Martin Bulla & Christiaan Both & Renée A Duckworth & Lynna Marie Kiere & Patrik Karell & Tomáš Albrecht & Bart Kempenaers, 2019. "Scrutinizing assortative mating in birds," PLOS Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(2), pages 1-20, February.
    3. Hanne C Lie & Leigh W Simmons & Gillian Rhodes, 2009. "Does Genetic Diversity Predict Health in Humans?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 4(7), pages 1-7, July.
    4. H. J. Nichols & M. B. V. Bell & S. J. Hodge & M. A. Cant, 2012. "Resource limitation moderates the adaptive suppression of subordinate breeding in a cooperatively breeding mongoose," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 23(3), pages 635-642.
    5. Nicholas M A Crouch & Roberta J Mason-Gamer, 2018. "Structural equation modeling as a tool to investigate correlates of extra-pair paternity in birds," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(2), pages 1-14, February.
    6. Adeline Loyau & Jérémie H Cornuau & Jean Clobert & Étienne Danchin, 2012. "Incestuous Sisters: Mate Preference for Brothers over Unrelated Males in Drosophila melanogaster," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(12), pages 1-6, December.
    7. Kat Bebbington & Eleanor A Fairfield & Lewis G Spurgin & Sjouke A Kingma & Hannah Dugdale & Jan Komdeur & David S Richardson & Anna LindholmHandling editor, 2018. "Joint care can outweigh costs of nonkin competition in communal breeders," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 29(1), pages 169-178.
    8. Charlotte Christensen & Andrew N Radford, 2018. "Dear enemies or nasty neighbors? Causes and consequences of variation in the responses of group-living species to territorial intrusions," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 29(5), pages 1004-1013.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:beheco:v:26:y:2015:i:6:p:1486-1494.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/beheco .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.