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Indiscriminate polyandry and male parental effort
Michael A Fishman1, Lewi Stone
1Department of Zoology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, 69978, Tel Aviv, Israel. mafish@post.tau.ac.il
Bulletin of Mathematical Biology
|December 13, 2003
Summary
This study explores evolutionary game theory in animal mating, revealing three stable strategies for parental care and extrapair fertilizations (EPF) when partners are limited. These strategies balance female EPF seeking with male paternal investment.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary Biology
- Behavioral Ecology
- Game Theory
Background:
- Extrapair paternity involves cooperation between mated females and extrapair males, while mated males employ anti-cuckolding strategies.
- Species and population-level extrapair attributes represent solutions to evolutionary games concerning gender-specific mating strategies.
- Females may seek extrapair fertilizations (EPF) for genetic benefits, but often cannot pre-select optimal partners.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of male paternal effort conservation strategies within an evolutionary game framework.
- To model scenarios where females pursue EPF for genetic advantages, combined with post-copulatory selection mechanisms.
- To analyze the evolutionary stable strategies arising from constraints on indiscriminate polyandry due to limited extrapair male availability.
Main Methods:
- Utilized game theoretical methods to model interactions between female extrapair fertilization seeking and male parental care strategies.
- Analyzed evolutionary stable strategies under conditions where female promiscuity is limited by the supply of extrapair males.
- Examined the interplay between female mate choice mechanisms (pre- and post-copulatory) and male investment decisions.
Main Results:
- Identified three distinct evolutionary stable strategy solutions based on parameter regimes.
- Solution 1: All females pursue EPF; all males restrict parental care.
- Solution 2: All females pursue EPF; all males are unconditionally parental.
- Solution 3: Females employ a mixed strategy (EPF pursuit and genetic monogamy); males use conditional paternal care based on paternity certainty.
Conclusions:
- The availability of extrapair males significantly shapes the evolutionary dynamics of mating and parental care strategies.
- Conditional paternal care by males emerges as a key strategy when females combine EPF seeking with monogamy.
- Evolutionary stable outcomes depend on the balance between female mating strategies and male responses to paternity uncertainty.