Should females prefer old males?

ABSTRACT: Whether females should prefer to mate with old males is controversial. Old males may sire offspring of low quality because of an aging germline, but their proven ability to reach an old age can also be an excellent indicator of superior genetic quality, especially in natural populations. These genetic effects are, however, hard to study in nature, because they are often confounded with direct benefits offered by old males to the female, such as experience and high territory quality. We, therefore, used naturally occurring extra-pair young to disentangle different aspects of male age on female fitness in a natural population of collared flycatchers because any difference between within- and extra-pair young within a nest should be caused by paternal genetic effects only. Based on 18 years o

SUBMITTER: Segami JC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8484724 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature