Mutual mate guarding with limited sexual conflict in a sex-role-reversed shorebird.

ABSTRACT: Mate guarding is typically considered a male strategy to protect paternity. However, under some circumstances, females might also benefit from guarding their mate. Female mate guarding might be particularly important in socially polyandrous species in which females compete for access to care-giving males. Because males also benefit from being near their partner to avoid paternity loss, pair members may have a mutual interest in mate guarding in polyandrous species. We studied the time spent together and movements that lead to separation, as behavioral measures of mate guarding, in the classically polyandrous red phalarope (Phalaropus fulicarius). We equipped 64 breeding pairs with miniaturized telemetry loggers with GPS to assess variation in mate-guarding intensity in relation to b

SUBMITTER: Krietsch J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10773304 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan-Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature