Sexual conflict. The evolution of infanticide by males in mammalian societies.
Male mammals often kill conspecific offspring. The benefits of such infanticide to males, and its costs to females, probably vary across mammalian social and mating systems. We used comparative analyses to show that infanticide primarily evolves in social mammals in which reproduction is monopolized by a minority of males. It has not promoted social counterstrategies such as female gregariousness, pair living, or changes in group size and sex ratio, but is successfully prevented by female sexual promiscuity, a paternity dilution strategy. These findings indicate that infanticide is a consequence, rather than a cause, of contrasts in mammalian social systems affecting the intensity of sexual conflict.
Large Animal Research Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK. dl384@cam.ac.uk.
Dieter
D
Lukas
Large Animal Research Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK. Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive, UMR 5175, CNRS - Université de Montpellier, 1919 Route de Mende, 34293 Montpellier Cedex 5, France.
Elise
E
Huchard
D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D008322:Mammals / Q000523:psychology*; D010152:Pair Bond; D012098:Reproduction; D012744:Sex Ratio; D012726:Sexual Behavior, Animal