Does a trade‐off between current reproductive success and survival affect the honesty of male signalling in species with male parental care?

Recent theory predicted that male advertisement will reliably signal investment in paternal care in species where offspring survival requires paternal care and males allocate resources between advertisement and care. However, the predicted relationship between care and advertisement depended on the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of evolutionary biology 2010-11, Vol.23 (11), p.2461-2473
Main Authors: KELLY, N. B., ALONZO, S. H.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal Communication
Animal reproduction
Animals
Breeding success
Computer Simulation
Evolutionary biology
Fitness
Genetic Fitness - genetics
Life cycles
Life history
Male
male allocation
Males
Models, Biological
parental care
Paternal Behavior
Progeny
Reproduction
Reproduction - physiology
reproductive strategies
Sexual Behavior, Animal - physiology
sexual selection
Survival
Survival Analysis
Theory
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Summary:Recent theory predicted that male advertisement will reliably signal investment in paternal care in species where offspring survival requires paternal care and males allocate resources between advertisement and care. However, the predicted relationship between care and advertisement depended on the marginal gains from investment in current reproductive traits. Life history theory suggests that these fitness gains are also subject to a trade‐off between current and future reproduction. Here, we investigate whether male signalling remains a reliable indicator of parental care when males allocate resources between current advertisement, paternal care and survival to future reproduction. We find that advertisement is predicted to remain a reliable signal of male care but that advertisement may cease to reliably indicate male quality because low‐quality males are predicted to invest in current reproduction, whereas higher‐quality males are able to invest in both current reproduction and survival to future reproduction.
ISSN:1010-061X
1420-9101
DOI:10.1111/j.1420-9101.2010.02111.x