Why do birds engage in extra-pair copulation?

Simon C. Griffith () and Robert Montgomerie
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Simon C. Griffith: Edward Grey Institute, University of Oxford
Robert Montgomerie: Queen's University

Nature, 2003, vol. 422, issue 6934, 833-833

Abstract: Abstract Female birds often copulate with males that are not their social partner, but why they do this is unclear1. Blomqvist et al.2 present evidence from three wader species showing that extra-pair fertilizations are more likely when social mates are genetically closely related. We argue, however, that their conclusions are undermined on technical and theoretical grounds, and that there is still no convincing evidence that extra-pair copulation in birds is influenced by the relatedness between partners.

Date: 2003
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DOI: 10.1038/422833a

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