title: Conflict and cooperation over sex: the consequences of social and genetic polyandry for reproductive success in dunnocks.
abstract: Conflict and cooperation within and between the sexes are among the driving forces that lead to the evolution of mating systems. Among mating strategies, female genetic polyandry and male reproductive cooperation pose challenging evolutionary questions regarding the maintenance of systems where one sex suffers from reduced fitness. Here, we investigate the consequences of social and genetic polyandry for reproductive success of females and males in a population of the dunnock, Prunella modularis. We show that female multiple mating ameliorates the negative effects of inbreeding. We, however, found little evidence that females engage in extra-group (pair) mating with less related or more heterozygous males. Breeding in socially polyandrous groups reduced the amount of paternity lost to extra-group males, such that, on average, cobreeding and monogamous males fledged a similar number of young. Importantly, c. 30% of cobreeding male dyads were related, suggesting they could gain indirect fitness benefits. Taken together, cobreeding males achieve equivalent reproductive success to monogamous counterparts under most circumstances. Our study has revealed unexpected complexities in the variable mating system of dunnocks in New Zealand. Our results differ from the well-known Cambridge dunnock study and can help our understanding of the evolution and maintenance of various breeding systems in the animal kingdom.
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, University of Otago, 340 Great King Street, Dunedin 9016, New Zealand.|LAGE do Departamento de Ecologia, and Departamento de Zoologia, Universidade de São Paulo, Rua do Matão, Trav. 14, No 101, Cid. Universitária - São Paulo, 05508-090, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Eduardo S A
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0434-3655
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Santos
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, University of Otago, 340 Great King Street, Dunedin 9016, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Luana L S
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Santos
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, University of Otago, 340 Great King Street, Dunedin 9016, New Zealand.|Evolution & Ecology Research Centre and School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.
authors.forename: Malgorzata
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lagisz
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, University of Otago, 340 Great King Street, Dunedin 9016, New Zealand.|Evolution & Ecology Research Centre and School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.
authors.forename: Shinichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nakagawa
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D005260:Female; D056084:Genetic Fitness; D008297:Male; D009520:New Zealand; D012098:Reproduction; D012726:Sexual Behavior, Animal; D020308:Songbirds / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: Prunella modularis; cooperative polyandry; extra-group paternity; inbreeding avoidance; male reproductive cooperation; mating system; promiscuity