Skip to main content
Dryad

Female need for paternal care shapes variation in extra-pair paternity in a cooperative breeder

Cite this dataset

Cousseau, Laurence et al. (2019). Female need for paternal care shapes variation in extra-pair paternity in a cooperative breeder [Dataset]. Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.bcc2fqz7s

Abstract

Socially-monogamous females regularly mate with males outside the pair bond. The prevailing explanation for this behavior is that females gain genetic benefits resulting from increased fitness of extra-pair offspring. Furthermore, because of the risk of reduced paternal care in response to cuckoldry, females are expected to seek extra-pair copulations when they can rear offspring with little help from their social partner (“constrained female” hypothesis). We tested these hypotheses and analyzed variation in paternal care in the Afrotropical, facultative cooperative breeding placid greenbul (Phyllastrephus placidus). Overall, ca. 50% of the offspring resulted from extra-pair (and extra-group) mating. Identified extra-pair males were in most cases neighboring dominant males, yet never within-group subordinates. As predicted by the constrained female hypothesis, the occurrence of extra-pair paternity (EPP) increased with the number of cooperative helpers (and not with total group size). However, dominant males did not adjust their food provisioning rates in response to EPP. Although extra-pair males were more strongly related to the dominant female and less heterozygous than the latter’s social mate, this did not result in more inbred extra-pair offspring, likely because identified extra-pair males were not representative of the extra-pair male population. While earlier studies on EPP mainly focused on male genetic quality, results from this study provide evidence that female’s social context may affect extra-pair strategies too.

Usage notes

The excel file contains three sheets:

 

- "Genotypes": 1443 individuals were genotyped at up to 12 microsatelites.

 

- "Nestlings": 237 nestlings from 137 broods.

NEST: ID of the nest

POP_CLUSTER: forest fragments were divided in three population clusters, i.e. "Chawia", "Ngangao" and "Small_fragments".

YEAR: year 0708 correpsonds to breeding season 2007-2008

NESTLING: nestling ring number

TARS: tarsus lenght of the neslting

SMI: Scale Mass Index of the nestling

HETERO: heterozygosity of the nestling

WPY: within-pair young (yes: 1, no: 0)

NWPY: number of within-pair young in the brood

NEPY: number of extra-pair young in the brood

EPB: at least one extra-pair offspring in the brood (yes: 1, no: 2)

NSUB: number of subordinates in the group

NHELP: number of helpers in the group (subordinates providing food to nesltings)

DOMINAN_ FEMALE: dominant female ring number

TARS_DF: tarsus lenght of the dominant female

HET_DF: heterozygosity of the dominant female

DOMINANT_MALE: dominant male ring number

TARS_DM: tarsus lenght of the dominant male

HET_DM: heterozygosity of the dominant male

RELAT_DM: relatedness between the dominant male and female

FATHER_MALE: ring number of the genetic father (as assigned by the program COLONY)

TARS_FATHER: tarsus lenght of the genetic father

HET_FATHER: heterozygosity of the genetic father

RELAT_FATHER: relatedness between the genetic father and the dominant female

 

- "Food providioning":

NEST: ID of the nest

POP_CLUSTER: forest fragments were divided in three population clusters, i.e. "Chawia", "Ngangao" and "Small_fragments".

YEAR: year 0708 correpsonds to breeding season 2007-2008

FEED_FREQ_DM: number of feeds per hour per nestling by the dominant male

AVG_FOODSIZE_DM: average prey size brought by the dominant male

FEED_FREQ_DF: number of feeds per hour per nestling by the dominant female

AVG_FOODSIZE_DF: average prey size brought by the dominant female

NHELP: number of helpers in the group (subordinates providing food to nesltings)

AGE_NESTLING: age in days of the neslting(s)