Date: October 9, 2018
Source: Hokkaido University
Females
of a socially monogamous passerine, the Japanese great tit (Parus minor), become more promiscuous
after hatchings fail in the first breeding attempt -- apparently attempting to
ensure successful reproduction.
Many
organisms, including human beings, form monogamous relationships. Birds do
particularly so, with 90 percent of species exhibiting monogamous
relationships. Indeed, a pair of birds conjures up the image of a "happily
married couple." Yet after paternity tests based on DNA analyses were
introduced in the 1990s, it was discovered that, in more than 75 percent of
monogamous bird species, females had mated with other male birds, producing
offspring whose genetic father is not the mother's partner -- the phenomenon
called extra-pair paternity.
"Universality
of extra-pair paternity in monogamous birds was shocking and much research has
been performed on extra-pair paternity among various species in the last 30
years. However, how flexibly individual females behave to changing
circumstances when selecting mates has been largely unexamined due to the
difficulty of controlling conditions in wild populations," explains Itsuro
Koizumi, an Associate Professor of Hokkaido University.
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