title: Polyandry enhances offspring survival in an infanticidal species.
abstract: The adaptive significance of polyandry is an intensely debated subject in sexual selection. For species with male infanticidal behaviour, it has been hypothesized that polyandry evolved as female counterstrategy to offspring loss: by mating with multiple males, females may conceal paternity and so prevent males from killing putative offspring. Here we present, to our knowledge, the first empirical test of this hypothesis in a combined laboratory and field study, and show that multiple mating seems to reduce the risk of infanticide in female bank voles Myodes glareolus. Our findings thus indicate that females of species with non-resource based mating systems, in which males provide nothing but sperm, but commit infanticide, can gain non-genetic fitness benefits from polyandry.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological and Environmental Science and Konnevesi Research Station, University of Jyväskylä, , PO Box 35, 40014 Jyväskylä, Finland. ines.klemme@jyu.fi
authors.forename: Ines
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Klemme
authors.forename: Hannu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ylönen
mesh_terms: D000220:Adaptation, Biological / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D003411:Arvicolinae / Q000502:physiology*; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D052586:Mating Preference, Animal / Q000502:physiology*
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