Abstract
In solitary carnivorous mammals, territoriality is assumed to benefit male fitness by ensuring the exclusivity of matings within territories via mate guarding and female defence. However, this hypothesis remains empirically untested. Here, we examined this hypothesis for solitary territorial carnivores using the Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus) as a case study. We expected that territorial males sire all litters born within their territories, translating into the absence of multi-paternity cases within the same litter. We analysed parentage in 43 kittens, belonging to 20 different litters. For 42 kittens, a father could be assigned using microsatellites and always coincided with the individual holding the territory. For 16 kittens from 10 litters for which we also had information on SNPs, paternity assignments coincided with microsatellites, except for a litter (two kittens) from the same litter for which a different male was assigned, but the territorial male could not be excluded. Our results indicated that multi-paternity in the Iberian lynx must be a rare event, and that territorial males sire all litters born from the females with which they share territories. We propose that both the low number of mature individuals in the lynx population and the fact that female oestrus is induced by male presence may explain results.
Highlights
The spacing pattern in mammal populations, such as the defence of exclusive animal home ranges, is the result of the tactics chosen by individuals to maximize their fitness[1,2,3]
As multi-male mating by females is common in mammals from different families with varying life histories, mate guarding may have evolved in response to the threat of infanticide and the subsequent tendency of females to mate multiply[5]
Our results indicate that multiple paternity in the Iberian lynx must be an extremely rare event, if it occurs at all, and that territorial males sired almost all litters born from females overlapping with their territories
Summary
The spacing pattern in mammal populations, such as the defence of exclusive animal home ranges (i.e., territoriality), is the result of the tactics chosen by individuals to maximize their fitness[1,2,3]. In solitary carnivorous mammals, where males are not involved in parental care, male reproductive success is largely limited by access to females and their defence from other males, rather than by acquisition of nutrients[1]. This results in a strong territorial spacing system directed at monopolizing access to females[1, 8, 9]. Territorial males are expected, theoretically, to expel intruders in order to maximize their fitness Under this premise, it can be hypothesized that the energetic cost of territoriality for resident males is compensated for by the monopolization of mating opportunities with females within male territories[10]. It should be expected that multi-paternity events do not occur, or are extremely rare
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