Requirements for a Mixed Reproductive Strategy in Avian Species

Fitch, Mary A.; Shugart, Gary W.

doi:10.1086/284255

Cited by 85 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…This prediction follows from the general evolutionary premise that male reproductive behaviour is expected to be a tradeo¡ between parental e¡ort and mating e¡ort (Trivers 1972;Maynard Smith 1977;Beecher & Beecher 1979;Fitch & Shugart 1984). Despite this robust prediction, there has been no empirical support for an association between male contribution to parental care and the opportunity for extra-pair copulations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Paternal care declines with increased opportunity for extra–pair matings in fairy martins

Magrath

Elgar

1997

Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B

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Following the discovery that extra-pair fertilizations are common in many birds, it has been predicted that male participation in parental care may be in£uenced by their opportunity for extra-pair copulations. However, such a trade-o¡ between male contribution to parental care and the availability of fertile females has not been con¢rmed. Here we use a novel remote monitoring technique to show that participation in incubation by male fairy martins, Hirundo ariel, declines with the increasing availability of fertile females in the breeding colonies. Furthermore, male contribution to incubation is most responsive to change in the availability of fertile females in the early morning, when most copulations occur, and also if their clutches are smaller than average. Both of these patterns support the presence of a trade-o¡ between parental and extra-pair copulation e¡ort. We suggest that this trade-o¡ may be widespread among the 90% of bird species where males contribute to parental care.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Paternal care declines with increased opportunity for extra–pair matings in fairy martins

Magrath

Elgar

1997

Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B

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“…Recent studies have also emphasized that a paired male may reduce the risk of cuckoldry by guarding his mate during her fertile period (Bj6rklund and Westman 1983;Davies 1985;Moller 1987a, b, c;Birkhead et al 1987). Thus, it is not surprising that males in a variety of bird species allocate much time to mate guarding, especially during the period just prior to egg laying (e.g., Birkhead 1979;Fitch and Shugart 1984;Moore 1984;Moller 1985Moller , 1987b.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trade-off between mate guarding and mate attraction in the polygynous great reed warbler

Hasselquist

Bensch

1991

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

116

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In a Swedish population of the polygynous great reed warbler Acrocephalus arundinaceus, about 40% of the males formed pairs with more than one female. Males sang two completely separated types of song: (1) long song when they tried to attract mates and (2) short shong when they guarded a fertile female. As soon as a male had attracted a female he immediately switched from long to short song and apparently guarded her for at least 3 days. Most males left their female and started singing long several days before her fertile period ended. This behavior probably increased the risk of cuckoldry. By assuming that males of polygynous species maximize their fitness over the whole breeding season (i.e., maximize fitness rate), we predicted longer mate guarding periods when the probability of attracting a second female was low and the risk of cuckoldry was high. These predictions were supported by observations, The probability of attracting a second female decreased during the breeding season and, in accordance, the number of days that males sang long song during the primary female's fertile period was negatively correlated with the time of the season. This trend held also for individual males when comparing mating periods of their primary and secondary female. The increasing rate of male intrusions with season may also have contributed to the increasing mate guarding periods.

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“…a) The coincidence of PC and EPC or male intrusion pressure with the female fertile period (FITCH & SHUGART, 1984;McKINNEY et al, 1984;BIRKHEAD, 1988;MOCK & FUJIOKA, 1990;WESTNEAT et al, 1990). White storks lacked tuning of maximum daily EPC and PC rates with the female MF phase.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…White storks, on the contrary, drastically reduced PC rates around a week before egg laying, and this effect was due to both a lower receptivity by females and a lower rate of copulation attempts by males. b) The existence of mate guarding (BIRKHEAD, 1979;FORD, 1983;FITCH & SHUGART, 1984;MCKINNEY et al, 1984;MOCK & FUJIOKA, 1990). White stork males spent less time at the nest during the female MF than pre-MF period, while the opposite pattern has been observed in cattle egrets (FUJIOKA & YAMAGISHI, 1981) and spoonbills (AGUILERA & ALVAREZ, 1989).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This prediction was not supported by the available data but sample sizes were quite small. The possibility that females could employ PC as a cue for male aptitude for parental care has been repeatedly suggested, but supporting evidence is still lacking (FITCH & SHUGART, 1984;MOLLER, 1985;WESTNEAT et al, 1990). We found that PC rates during the female pre-MF period were highly correlated with rates of chick feeding by males, because males who spent more time at the nest copulated more frequently.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Frequent Copulations Despite Low Sperm Competition in White Storks (Ciconia Ciconia)

Tortosa¹,

Redondo²

1992

Behav

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Requirements for a Mixed Reproductive Strategy in Avian Species

Cited by 85 publications

References 28 publications

Paternal care declines with increased opportunity for extra–pair matings in fairy martins

Paternal care declines with increased opportunity for extra–pair matings in fairy martins

Trade-off between mate guarding and mate attraction in the polygynous great reed warbler

Frequent Copulations Despite Low Sperm Competition in White Storks (Ciconia Ciconia)

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