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FRIMEDBIO-Fri prosj.st. med.,helse,biol

Promiscuity and the Evolution of Cooperative Neighbourhoods

Tildelt: kr 8,2 mill.

A striking but unexplained pattern in biology is the widespread promiscuity in socially monogamous species. Although females commonly solicit extra-pair copulations, the adaptive reason has been elusive. We use evolutionary modelling to show that females benefit because extra-pair paternity incentivizes males to shift focus from a single nest toward the entire neighborhood, as they are likely to have offspring there. This perspective makes novel predictions regarding cooperation, group living, sex roles, mating systems, and the origins of social organization. In the project we focus on ecological features common in natural population to bridge the gap between our general theory and predictions we test in empirical systems. In the previous year we have continued our empirical focus and extended our experimental studies in a blue tit population in southern France. We are close to finishing the analyses of data from two seasons of paternity data and observations of anti-predator behaviors. We have presented our ideas on international conferences and popular science meetings. During the last year, we have had two students starting their master project and one student are close to finishing her thesis analyzing field and lab data. Collaboration with University of Montpellier, University of California, Oxford University and University of Western Australia during the last year includes projects that link model predictions with data on bird mating systems.

A striking but unexplained pattern in biology is the widespread promiscuity in socially monogamous species. Although females commonly solicit extra-pair copulations, the adaptive reason has been elusive. We use evolutionary modelling to show that females benefit because extra-pair paternity incentivizes males to shift focus from a single nest toward the entire neighbourhood, as they are likely to have offspring there. This perspective makes novel predictions regarding cooperation, group living, sex roles, mating systems, and the origins of social organization. In the proposed project we focus on ecological features common in natural population that bridge the gap between our general theory and empirically testable predictions. A particular focus will be o n how individual variation in condition, information and mating prospects shape male and female mating behaviours. We will study how cooperative networks emerge from social engineering among breeders and our theory also offers a novel perspective on sex-s pecific division of labour. Through a collaborative initiative with the Centre for Womens and Gender Research, a postdoc (funded by UoB) will extend the reach of our theory by considering promiscuity and cooperation in other taxa, particularly primates.

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FRIMEDBIO-Fri prosj.st. med.,helse,biol

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