Parentage and paternal care: consequences of intersexual selection in Savannah sparrows? |
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Authors: | Corey R Freeman-Gallant |
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Institution: | (1) Division of Biological Sciences, Section of Ecology and Systematics, Corson Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA Tel.: (607) 254-4280; Fax: +(607) 255-8088; e-mail: crf5@cornell.edu, US |
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Abstract: | Empirical relationships between parentage and male parental care are commonly interpreted in the context of life-history
models that consider increased offspring survivorship as the only benefit of paternal effort. However, indirect benefits associated
with male care can also influence a male's response to cuckoldry: if females allocate paternity according to their prior experience
with male parental care, it may pay for males to provision extra-pair young in early broods. Here, I assess the relationship
between first-brood parentage and paternal care in a population of Savannah sparrows (Passerculussandwichensis) where a male's fertilization success in the second brood appears to be influenced by his prior parental performance. Based
on the multi-locus DNA fingerprinting of 17 first broods, male feeding effort was influenced by parentage (percent of brood
resulting from within-pair fertilizations) but not by brood size, male mating status (monogamous versus polygynous), timing
of breeding (hatching date), structural size (wing length) or condition (mass). Males provided more care to broods that contained
few within-pair young. This result supports the idea that males provision young to increase their future mating success, but
alternative hypotheses involving male quality and timing of breeding cannot be excluded.
Received: 13 August 1996 / Accepted after revision: 22 February 1997 |
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Keywords: | Male parental care Extra-pair fertilizations Parentage Passerculus sandwichensis Sexual selection |
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