Year-end Sale % OFF 
Abstract
Resource polygyny incurs costs of having to share breeding resources for female breeders. When breeding with a relative, however, such costs may be lessened by indirect fitness benefits through kin selection, while benefits from mutualistic behaviour, such as communal defence, may increase. If so, females should be less resistant to sharing a territory with a related female than with a non-related one. We investigated whether kin selection may lower the threshold of breeding polygynously, predicting a closer relatedness between polygynous females breeding on the same territory than between females breeding on different territories. Northern lapwings, Vanellus vanellus, are suitable for testing this hypothesis as they are commonly polygynous, both sexes take part in nest defence, and the efficiency of nest defence increases with the number of defenders. Using an index of relatedness derived from DNA fingerprinting, we found that female lapwings that shared polygynous dyads were on average twice as closely related as were random females. Furthermore, relatedness did not correlate with distance between breeders, indicating that our findings cannot be explained by natal philopatry alone. Our results suggest that the polygyny threshold in lapwings may be lowered by inclusive fitness advantages of kin selection.
Highlights
Kin selection, or indirect fitness advantages arising from favouring relatives over unrelated individuals, is assumed to underpin a range of adaptive choices concerning whom to invest in and how much to invest [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]
We investigated whether kin selection may lower the threshold of breeding polygynously, predicting a closer relatedness between polygynous females breeding on the same territory than between females breeding on different territories
Our results suggest that the polygyny threshold in lapwings may be lowered by inclusive fitness advantages of kin selection
Summary
Indirect fitness advantages arising from favouring relatives over unrelated individuals, is assumed to underpin a range of adaptive choices concerning whom to invest in and how much to invest [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. An individual should benefit when a relative perpetuates their genes to further generations to an extent proportional to their relatedness [1]. Costs of interference and resource depletion imposed by antagonists should recede as their relatedness increases, reducing aggression and lowering the threshold for cooperation between individuals [1,7]. The amount of breeding resources offered by males determines on which territory a prospecting female should settle to maximize her fitness. If a prospecting female finds that a territory, after subtraction of such costs, still yields more breeding resources than available bachelor-held territories, the polygyny threshold is exceeded and she should achieve greater fitness by breeding polygynously than monogamously [8,9,10,11,12,13]. The magnitude of the costs imposed by having to share resources is a significant predictor of female settlement decisions in polygynous systems
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
