Conditional female strategies influence hatching success in a communally nesting iguana.

ABSTRACT: The decision of females to nest communally has important consequences for reproductive success. While often associated with reduced energetic expenditure, conspecific aggregations also expose females and offspring to conspecific aggression, exploitation, and infanticide. Intrasexual competition pressures are expected to favor the evolution of conditional strategies, which could be based on simple decision rules (i.e., availability of nesting sites and synchronicity with conspecifics) or on a focal individual's condition or status (i.e., body size). Oviparous reptiles that reproduce seasonally and provide limited to no postnatal care provide ideal systems for disentangling social factors that influence different female reproductive tactics from those present in offspring-rearing environment

SUBMITTER: Moss JB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7141077 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature