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Levels of extra‐pair paternity are associated with parental care in penduline tits (Remizidae) |
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| Authors: | Alex D. Ball René E. van Dijk Penn Lloyd Ákos Pogány Deborah A. Dawson Steve Dorus Rauri C. K. Bowie Terry Burke Tamás Székely |
| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath, UK;2. Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Western Bank, Sheffield, UK;3. Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, Cape Town, South Africa;4. Biodiversity Assessment and Management Pty Ltd, Cleveland, Qld, Australia;5. Department of Ethology, E?tv?s Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary;6. Department of Biology, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, USA;7. Museum of Vertebrate Zoology & Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA |
| Abstract: | In most passerine birds, individuals attempt to maximize their fitness by providing parental care while also mating outside their pair bond. A sex‐specific trade‐off between these two behaviours is predicted to occur, as the fitness benefits of extra‐pair mating differ between the sexes. We use nest observations and parentage analysis to reveal a negative association between male care and the incidence of extra‐pair paternity across three species of penduline tit (Remizidae). This provides evidence of a trade‐off between these two behaviours, possibly due to the devaluing of paternal care by extra‐pair offspring. |
| Keywords: | extra‐pair paternity parental care sexual conflict penduline tit Remizidae |