University of Tasmania
Browse
Female_aggression_predicts_mode..pdf (335.73 kB)

Female aggression predicts mode of paternity acquisition in a social lizard

Download (335.73 kB)
journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-16, 23:32 authored by Geoffrey WhileGeoffrey While, Sinn, DL, Erik WapstraErik Wapstra
Individual differences in behaviour are ubiquitous in nature. Despite the likely role of selection in maintaining these differences, there are few demonstrations of their fitness consequences in wild populations and, consequently, the mechanisms that link behavioural variation to variation in fitness are poorly understood. Specifically, the consequences of consistent individual differences in behaviour for the evolution of social and mating strategies have rarely been considered. We examined the functional links between variation in female aggression and her social and mating strategies in a wild population of the social lizard Egernia whitii. We show that female Egernia exhibit temporally consistent aggressive phenotypes, which are unrelated to body size, territory size or social density. A female's aggressive phenotype, however, has strong links to her mode of paternity acquisition (within- versus extra-pair paternity), with more aggressive females having more offspring sired by extra-pair males than less aggressive females. We discuss the potential mechanisms by which female aggression could underpin mating strategies, such as the pursuit/acceptance of extra-pair copulations. We propose that a deeper understanding of the evolution and maintenance of social and mating systems may result from an explicit focus on individual-level female behavioural phenotypes and their relationship with key reproductive strategies. © 2009 The Royal Society.

History

Publication title

Proceedings of The Royal Society. Biological Sciences

Volume

276

Issue

1664

Pagination

2021-2029

ISSN

0962-8452

Department/School

School of Natural Sciences

Publisher

The Royal Society

Place of publication

United Kingdom

Repository Status

  • Restricted

Socio-economic Objectives

Expanding knowledge in the biological sciences

Usage metrics

    University Of Tasmania

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC