Citation

BibTex format

@article{Dunning:2024:10.1016/j.anbehav.2024.04.007,
author = {Dunning, J and Sanchez-Tojar, A and Girndt, A and Burke, T and Hsu, Y-H and Nakagawa, S and Winney, I and Schroeder, J},
doi = {10.1016/j.anbehav.2024.04.007},
journal = {Animal Behaviour},
pages = {117--123},
title = {Extrapair paternity alongside social reproduction increases male lifetime fitness},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2024.04.007},
volume = {213},
year = {2024}
}

RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB - Within breeding years, male birds vary in their reproductive strategy. While some maintain monogamy with a social partner, others also engage with extrapair partners, while others forgo monogamy altogether in favour of exclusively seeking extrapair paternity. Although theory predicts that extrapair paternity is beneficial to males, which sire extrapair offspring without investing in costly parental care, empirical examples from wild populations are sparse. We used 17 years of data from a closed population of house sparrows, Passer domesticus, with a complete genetic pedigree, to test the hypothesis that extrapair paternity increases male lifetime reproductive success. We compared a mixed strategy of within-pair (or social) and extrapair paternity with total genetic monogamy and total extrapair paternity. We demonstrate that males who combine within-pair and extrapair paternity have increased reproductive success against the other two groups. Our results also suggest that males that exclusively seek extrapair paternity have the lowest lifetime fitness. Overall, we provide an empirical demonstration of the theory, showing that where males can sire extrapair offspring alongside within-pair offspring, extrapair paternity is beneficial to male lifetime fitness.
AU - Dunning,J
AU - Sanchez-Tojar,A
AU - Girndt,A
AU - Burke,T
AU - Hsu,Y-H
AU - Nakagawa,S
AU - Winney,I
AU - Schroeder,J
DO - 10.1016/j.anbehav.2024.04.007
EP - 123
PY - 2024///
SN - 0003-3472
SP - 117
TI - Extrapair paternity alongside social reproduction increases male lifetime fitness
T2 - Animal Behaviour
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2024.04.007
UR - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003347224001209?via%3Dihub
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/113577
VL - 213
ER -

Postgraduate research

Interested in studying a PhD at the Department of Life Sciences? Find out more about postgraduate research opportunties.