IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/beheco/v34y2023i5p780-789..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The evolution of extra-pair paternity and paternal care in birds

Author

Listed:
  • Jørgen S Søraker
  • Jonathan Wright
  • Fredrik Øglænd Hanslin
  • Michael Le Pepke

Abstract

Extra-pair paternity (EPP) influences the relatedness between social parents and offspring. Therefore, one might expect the level of EPP to influence levels of paternal investment. Here, we investigated the effect of variation in EPP rates on male contributions to parental care within a phylogenetic framework of up to 271 primarily socially monogamous bird species representing 85 families. We used proportion of male provisioning and occurrence of male incubation and nestbuilding as measures of paternal care. We tested the relationship between EPP rates and different components of paternal care while controlling for various life-history traits, namely lifespan, clutch size, and body mass in a phylogenetic path analysis framework. EPP was significantly negatively associated with the occurrence (i.e., whether males participate or not) of male nestbuilding and incubation, but not with the relative amount (proportion) of nestbuilding or incubation performed by the male. Importantly, the proportion of provisioning and biomass delivery by males was clearly negatively associated with EPP. These analyses thus confirm that the effect of EPP on proportion of provisioning visits by males is similar to proportion of biomass delivery, an often assumed but rarely tested assumption. Analysing only Passerine species provided similar results, although only proportion of provisioning was significantly negatively associated with EPP. This study, therefore, provides the most comprehensive support to date of a negative relationship between EPP and paternal care across species. However, a causal relationship between EPP and paternal care cannot necessarily be concluded. We also identify key methodological improvements for future research within the topic.

Suggested Citation

  • Jørgen S Søraker & Jonathan Wright & Fredrik Øglænd Hanslin & Michael Le Pepke, 2023. "The evolution of extra-pair paternity and paternal care in birds," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 34(5), pages 780-789.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:beheco:v:34:y:2023:i:5:p:780-789.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/beheco/arad053
    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. Mark Pagel, 1999. "Inferring the historical patterns of biological evolution," Nature, Nature, vol. 401(6756), pages 877-884, October.
    2. 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.
    3. W. Jetz & G. H. Thomas & J. B. Joy & K. Hartmann & A. O. Mooers, 2012. "The global diversity of birds in space and time," Nature, Nature, vol. 491(7424), pages 444-448, November.
    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. Elspeth Kenny & Tim R. Birkhead & Jonathan P. Green, 2017. "Allopreening in birds is associated with parental cooperation over offspring care and stable pair bonds across years," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 28(4), pages 1142-1148.
    2. Vall-llosera, Miquel & Cassey, Phillip, 2017. "Physical attractiveness, constraints to the trade and handling requirements drive the variation in species availability in the Australian cagebird trade," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 407-413.
    3. Jonathan A. Rader & Tyson L. Hedrick, 2023. "Morphological evolution of bird wings follows a mechanical sensitivity gradient determined by the aerodynamics of flapping flight," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.
    4. Cameron J Nordell & Samuel Haché & Erin M Bayne & Péter Sólymos & Kenneth R Foster & Christine M Godwin & Richard Krikun & Peter Pyle & Keith A Hobson, 2016. "Within-Site Variation in Feather Stable Hydrogen Isotope (δ2Hf) Values of Boreal Songbirds: Implications for Assignment to Molt Origin," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(11), pages 1-15, November.
    5. Jan Smyčka & Anna Toszogyova & David Storch, 2023. "The relationship between geographic range size and rates of species diversification," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-13, December.
    6. Arkadiusz Frӧhlich & Dorota Kotowska & Rafał Martyka & Matthew R. E. Symonds, 2023. "Allometry reveals trade-offs between Bergmann’s and Allen’s rules, and different avian adaptive strategies for thermoregulation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-13, December.
    7. Rodrigo S Rios & Cristian Salgado-Luarte & Ernesto Gianoli, 2014. "Species Divergence and Phylogenetic Variation of Ecophysiological Traits in Lianas and Trees," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(6), pages 1-10, June.
    8. Aris Katzourakis & Gkikas Magiorkinis & Aaron G Lim & Sunetra Gupta & Robert Belshaw & Robert Gifford, 2014. "Larger Mammalian Body Size Leads to Lower Retroviral Activity," PLOS Pathogens, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(7), pages 1-11, July.
    9. Jonas Eberle & Renier Myburgh & Dirk Ahrens, 2014. "The Evolution of Morphospace in Phytophagous Scarab Chafers: No Competition - No Divergence?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(5), pages 1-16, May.
    10. Mark C Mainwaring & Jenő Nagy & Mark E Hauber, 2021. "Sex-specific contributions to nest building in birds," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 32(6), pages 1075-1085.
    11. Annie Bissonnette & Mathias Franz & Oliver Schülke & Julia Ostner, 2014. "Socioecology, but not cognition, predicts male coalitions across primates," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 25(4), pages 794-801.
    12. Justin W. Baldwin & Joan Garcia-Porta & Carlos A. Botero, 2023. "Complementarity in Allen’s and Bergmann’s rules among birds," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    13. Alexandra McQueen & Marcel Klaassen & Glenn J. Tattersall & Robyn Atkinson & Roz Jessop & Chris J. Hassell & Maureen Christie & Matthew R. E. Symonds, 2022. "Thermal adaptation best explains Bergmann’s and Allen’s Rules across ecologically diverse shorebirds," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, December.
    14. Fernandes, Heitor B.F. & Peñaherrera-Aguirre, Mateo & Woodley of Menie, Michael A. & Figueredo, Aurelio José, 2020. "Macroevolutionary patterns and selection modes for general intelligence (G) and for commonly used neuroanatomical volume measures in primates," Intelligence, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    15. L. M. Diele-Viegas & R. T. Figueroa & B. Vilela & C. F. D. Rocha, 2020. "Are reptiles toast? A worldwide evaluation of Lepidosauria vulnerability to climate change," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 159(4), pages 581-599, April.
    16. Peter Mikula & Oldřich Tomášek & Dušan Romportl & Timothy K. Aikins & Jorge E. Avendaño & Bukola D. A. Braimoh-Azaki & Adams Chaskda & Will Cresswell & Susan J. Cunningham & Svein Dale & Gabriela R. F, 2023. "Bird tolerance to humans in open tropical ecosystems," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    17. Shan Su & Phillip Cassey & Miquel Vall-llosera & Tim M Blackburn, 2015. "Going Cheap: Determinants of Bird Price in the Taiwanese Pet Market," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(5), pages 1-17, May.
    18. Herkt, K. Matthias B. & Barnikel, Günter & Skidmore, Andrew K. & Fahr, Jakob, 2016. "A high-resolution model of bat diversity and endemism for continental Africa," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 320(C), pages 9-28.
    19. Ricarda Laumeier & Martin Brändle & Mark-Oliver Rödel & Stefan Brunzel & Roland Brandl & Stefan Pinkert, 2023. "The global importance and interplay of colour-based protective and thermoregulatory functions in frogs," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.
    20. Anders Pape Møller & László Zsolt Garamszegi, 2012. "Between individual variation in risk-taking behavior and its life history consequences," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 23(4), pages 843-853.

    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:34:y:2023:i:5:p:780-789.. 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.