Caring for Offspring in a World of Cheats

Dieter Lukas

PLOS Biology, 2013, vol. 11, issue 3, 1-3

Abstract: A comparative study of paternal care behavior shows how costs and benefits mitigate the occurrence of defense strategies against extra-pair offspring, keeping cheaters at bay but not completely out. Parents providing care to offspring face the same problem that exists in every biological system in which some individuals offer resources to others: cheaters, who exploit these benefits. In almost all species in which males contribute to parental care, females mate with multiple males. As a result, males frequently provide efforts for unrelated offspring at a cost to their own reproductive fitness. In a new study, Griffin et al. find that across a wide range of animal species, males flexibly adjust their contribution to parental care in relation to extra-pair paternity. However, adjustment is not perfect, because males are limited by the potential costs of withholding help to their own offspring, which is only outweighed if cheating occurs frequently and if providing care reduces a male's future reproductive success. These findings illustrate how in biological systems cheater and cheated can adapt to changes in each other, preventing either one from gaining control.

Date: 2013
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pbio00:1001519

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1001519

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