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Why female crested tits copulate repeatedly with the same partner: evidence for the mate assessment hypothesis
Authors:Lens  Luc; Dongen  Stefan Van; Broeck  Marleen Van den
Institution:aDepartment of Biology bDepartment of Biochemistry, University of Antwerp B-2610 Wilrijk, Belgium
Abstract:That repeated copulation with the same partner within a singlefertile period is beneficial to the male is generally accepted,but why it should be adaptive to the female is controversialand clear evidence supporting any hypothesis is lacking. Hunteret al. (1993) presented seven hypotheses explaining repeatedmating from the female perspective. Four of them are consistentwith the occurrence of male refusal to copulate: females mighttrade copulations for (1) immediate and or (2) future materialbenefits, or use mating as a mechanism for (3) mate-guardingand or (4) mate-assessment. To test these hypotheses in a populationof crested tits Parus cristatus, we collected data on variationin female solicitation rate, proportion of male refusal, andextra-pair paternity. We found that (1) female solicitationrate was independent of male condition, (2) the proportion ofmale refusal was higher in poor-condition males and (3) femalespaired to poor-condition males sought extra pair paternity.These findings agree with predictions stemming from the mateassessment hypothesis. Therefore, it is suggested that, in crestedtits, male response to female copulation solicitation reflectsmale condition and is used by females to assess male quality
Keywords:Aves (birds)  copulation  crested tit  mate assessment  mating  Papus critatus  Paridae  Parus  solicitation  
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