Trade-offs between fighting and breeding: a social network analysis of bison male interactions.

ABSTRACT: In most polygynous species, males compete for access to females using agonistic interactions to establish dominance hierarchies. Typically, larger and stronger males become more dominant and thus gain higher mating and reproductive success over subordinate males. However, there is an inherent trade-off between time and energy invested in dominance interactions versus courtship and mating activities. Individuals may overcome this trade-off by selectively engaging in more effective mating tactics. North American bison (Bison bison) are a species of conservation concern that exhibit female-defense polygyny with two predominant mating tactics: (1) tending individual females; or (2) challenging tending males as a satellite and then mating opportunistically. Here, we use social network an

SUBMITTER: Wyman MT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8189686 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature