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59 results for “female competition”

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Data from: Wake up and smell the conflict: odour signals in female competition

Odour signals used in competitive and aggressive interactions between males are well studied in the context of sexual selection. By contrast, relatively little is known about comparable signals used by females, despite current interest in the evolution of female ornaments and weaponry. Available evidence suggests that odour signals are important in competitive interactions between female mammals, with reductions or reversals of male-biased sexual dimorphism in signalling where female competition is intense. Scent marking is often associated with conflict between females over access to resources or reproductive opportunities. Female scent marks may therefore provide reliable signals of competitive ability that could be used both by competitors and potential mates. Consistent with this hypothesis, we report that aggressive behaviour of female house mice is correlated with the amount of major urinary protein (MUP) excreted in their urine, a polymorphic set of proteins that are used in scent mark signalling. Under semi-natural conditions, females with high MUP output are more likely to produce offspring sired by males that have high reproductive success, and less likely to produce offspring by multiple different sires, suggesting that females with strong MUP signals are monopolized by males of particularly high quality. We conclude that odour signals are worthy of more detailed investigation as mediators of female competition.

opencc-zeroDec 2012View details →

dryad28/100

Data from: Effects of female reproductive competition on birth rate and reproductive scheduling in a historical human population

Costly reproductive competition among females is predicted to lead to strategies that reduce these costs, such as reproductive schedules. Simultaneous births of co-resident women in human families can reduce their infant survival, but whether such competition also affects overall birth rates and whether females time their pregnancies to avoid simultaneous births remain unknown, despite being key questions for understanding how intra-female competition affects reproductive strategies. Here, we used detailed parish registers to study female reproductive competition in historical Finnish joint –families, where brothers stayed on their natal farms and sisters married out, and consequently unrelated daughters-in-law often co-resided and competed for household resources. We quantified the time-varying effects of having reproductive-aged competitor(s) on a woman's interval from marriage to first childbirth, on age-specific fertility, and on birth scheduling. Contrary to our hypothesis, the presence of one or several potential female competitors did not lead to longer first birth intervals or lower age-specific probability of reproduction. We also found no evidence that women would schedule their reproduction to avoid the real cost of simultaneous births on their offspring mortality risk; age-specific reproductive rates were unaltered by changes in the presence of other infants in the household. These results raise interesting questions regarding the evolution of fertility suppression in social mammals in different contexts, the costs and benefits of extended families for female reproductive success and strategies deployed, and the cultural practices that may help to avoid the negative outcomes of female reproductive competition in human families.

opencc-zeroDec 2016View details →

dryad28/100

Female choice and male-male competition are affected by noise-filled calls in a treefrog

Both human and non-human animals communicating acoustically face the problem of noise interference, especially anurans during mating activities. Previous studies focused on the effect of continuous noise on signal recognition, but it is still unknown whether different notes in advertisement calls filled by noise affect female choice and male-male competition or not. In this study, we tested female preferences and male evoked vocal responses in serrate-legged small treefrog (Kurixalus odontotarsus), by broadcasting the five-note advertisement call and the advertisement call with the second, third or fourth note filled by noise respectively. In phonotaxis experiments, females significantly discriminated against the advertisement call with the fourth note filled by noise, although they did not discriminate against other two noise-filled calls, which indicates that the effect of noise on female preference is related to the order of filled notes in the advertisement call. In playback experiments, males increased the total number of notes and notes/call in response to noise-filled calls compared with spontaneous calls. More interesting, the vocal responses evoked by noise-filled calls were similar to those evoked by complete advertisement calls, suggesting that males may recognize the noise-filled calls as complete advertisement calls. Taken together, our study shows that different notes in advertisement calls filled by noise have different effects on female choice and male-male competition.

opencc-zeroFeb 2022View details →

dryad28/100

Data from: Male seminal fluid substances affect sperm competition success and female reproductive behavior in a seed beetle

Male seminal fluid proteins are known to affect female reproductive behavior and physiology by reducing mating receptivity and by increasing egg production rates. Such substances are also though to increase the competitive fertilization success of males, but the empirical foundation for this tenet is restricted. Here, we examined the effects of injections of size-fractioned protein extracts from male reproductive organs on both male competitive fertilization success (i.e., P2 in double mating experiments) and female reproduction in the seed beetle Callosobruchus maculatus. We found that extracts of male seminal vesicles and ejaculatory ducts increased competitive fertilization success when males mated with females 1 day after the females' initial mating, while extracts from accessory glands and testes increased competitive fertilization success when males mated with females 2 days after the females' initial mating. Moreover, different size fractions of seminal fluid proteins had distinct and partly antagonistic effects on male competitive fertilization success. Collectively, our experiments show that several different seminal fluid proteins, deriving from different parts in the male reproductive tract and of different molecular weight, affect male competitive fertilization success in C. maculatus. Our results highlight the diverse effects of seminal fluid proteins and show that the function of such proteins can be contingent upon female mating status. We also document effects of different size fractions on female mating receptivity and egg laying rates, which can serve as a basis for future efforts to identify the molecular identity of seminal fluid proteins and their function in this model species.

opencc-zeroDec 2014View details →

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Carcass scavenging relaxes chemical-driven female interference competition in flour beetles

Female-female nonsexual interference competition is a major fitness determinant of biased sex-ratio groups with high female density. What strategies can females use to overcome the negative impact of this competition? We used flour beetle Tribolium castaneum to answer this question, where competing females from female-biased groups were already known to suppress each other's fecundity by secreting toxic quinones from their stink glands, indicating a unique chemical-driven interference competition. Surprisingly, increasing resources did not alleviate these fitness costs. Females also did not disperse more from the site of interference competition. Hence, the competition was neither influenced by the total resource availability nor the lack of opportunity to avoid chemical interference. Instead, protein sequestered via scavenging of nutrient-rich carcasses relaxed female competition, by increasing their fecundity and reducing the quinone content. Finally, stink gland components themselves triggered carcass-scavenging and increased fecundity, indicating the possibility of a novel chemical-driven feedback loop to reduce the competition. Taken together, in the present work, we could provide the rare analyses where multiple competing hypotheses were jointly tested to establish carcass-scavenging as an important potential strategy to overcome the fitness costs of intrasexual female interference competition.

opencc-zeroSep 2021View details →

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