Reproductive skew, concessions and limited control

Abstract

Models of reproductive skew in cooperative and eusocial societies suggest that dominants allow subordinates to breed to induce them to remain peaceably in the group. However, it is not yet clear how widely the assumptions of these models apply to animal societies, and many of the trends that they predict are consistent with the simpler suggestion that there is a struggle for reproduction between dominants and subordinates, whose outcome depends on the potential costs and benefits of the contest to both parties. Models of reproductive skew that incorporate contests of this kind and empirical studies that can discriminate clearly between reproductive concessions and failures of control are now needed.