When to Cheat: Modeling Dynamics of Paternity and Promiscuity in Socially Monogamous Prairie Voles (Microtus ochrogaster)
Open accessAbstract
In many socially monogamous species, individuals form long-term pair bonds and males mate guard females. Such behavior is thought to help secure intra-pair fertilizations, the result of intra-pair copulations (IPCs), and ensure paternity. However, socially monogamous males are also often opportunistic and seek additional mating opportunities with other females, leaving their partner unguarded. The success associated with a male’s decision to seek more mates over guarding his partner might be impacted by the activity of other males, specifically the proportion of other males leaving their territories to seek extra-pair copulations (EPCs). The amount of EPC-seeking males can impact the likelihood of a given male encountering an unguarded paired female, but also of being cuckolded (losing IPCs). It remains unclear under which conditions it is optimal to stay and guard or seek EPCs. Using field data from socially monogamous prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster) to generate parameters, we used optimal performance modeling (Monte Carlo simulations) to ask when is it most reproductively advantageous for a bonded male to seek EPCs, despite the risk of losing IPCs. We defined three types of males: exclusive mating bonded males (true residents), non-exclusive mating bonded residents (roving residents), and unpaired males (wanderers). We first modeled the success of an individual male living in a context that incorporated only true and roving residents. We next added wandering males to this model. Finally, we considered the effects of including wandering males and unpaired females in our model. For all contexts, we found that as EPC-seeking in the population increases, the potential reproductive benefit for seeking EPCs increasingly outpaces the rate of cuckolding. In other words, we observe a shift in optimal strategy from true residents to rovers among paired males. Our models also demonstrate that reproductive fitness is likely to remain constant, despite the shift toward obtaining success via EPCs over IPCs. Our results show the dynamic nature of reproductive decision-making, and demonstrate that alternative reproductive decisions yield subtle but important differences despite appearing as balanced strategies.
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Pair-bonded prairie voles exhibit aggression towards extra-pair individuals to aid in pair bond maintenance.
“Interestingly, pair-bonded prairie voles similarly exhibit aggression towards extra-pair individuals to aid in pair bond maintenance.”
From The Neurobiology of Love and Pair Bonding from Human and Animal Perspectives (2023) · cites this paper as [152]
The Introduction (page unavailable) says pair-bonded male prairie voles guard their mates and territories, and the Discussion, ‘Optimizing Strategy or Merely Getting Lucky’ (page unavailable), gives an example of a guarding male expelling extra-pair intruders. The paper frames this behavior as protecting paternity, not maintaining the pair bond, and does not establish the claim for pair-bonded voles generally. (LLM, conf=0.85)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredAlthough prairie voles are socially monogamous, they are not exclusively sexually monogamous, with some males and females seeking out extra-pair copulations.
“Although prairie voles are socially monogamous, they are not exclusively sexually monogamous, with some males and females seeking out extra-pair copulations [151,152].”
From The Neurobiology of Love and Pair Bonding from Human and Animal Perspectives (2023) · cites this paper as [152]
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- Authors
- Rice, M. A., Restrepo, L. F., & Ophir, A. G.
- Affiliations
- Cornell University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Ophir, Alexander G.
- Venue
- Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media SA
- Published
- 2018-09-19
- Volume
- 6
- ISSN
- 2296-701X (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC8248529
- OpenAlex
- W2890202450
- Cited by
- 13
- References
- 46
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 1.06
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (HD079573)
- National Science Foundation (2012142934)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Animal Behavior and Reproduction
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Marriage and Sexual Relationships
- Keywords
- Microtus ochrogaster, extra-pair copulation, paternity, cuckoldry, mating strategies, optimal foraging theory, reproductive decision-making, pair bonding, male guarding, reproductive fitness
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