No evidence of immediate fitness benefits of within-season divorce in monogamous birds.

ABSTRACT: Individuals of socially monogamous species can correct for suboptimal partnerships via two secondary mating strategies: divorce and extra-pair mating, with the former potentially providing both genetic and social benefits. Divorcing between breeding seasons has been shown to be generally adaptive behaviour across monogamous birds. Interestingly, some pairs also divorce during the breeding season, when constraints on finding a new partner are stronger. Despite being important for a comprehensive understanding of the evolution of social monogamy, whether within-season divorce is adaptive and how it relates to extra-pair mating remains unknown. Here, we meta-analysed 90 effect sizes on within-season divorce and breeding success, extracted from 31 studies on 24 species. We found no evidence th

SUBMITTER: Culina A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9091848 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature