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The evolution of infanticide by females in mammals

View ORCID ProfileDieter Lukas, View ORCID ProfileElise Huchard
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/405688
Dieter Lukas
1Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, CB2 3EJ Cambridge, U.K
2Department of Human Behaviour, Ecology, and Culture, MPI for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
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  • For correspondence: dieter_lukas@eva.mpg.de
Elise Huchard
1Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, CB2 3EJ Cambridge, U.K
3Institut des Sciences de L’Evolution de Montpellier, UMR 5554, CNRS, Université de Montpellier, Montpellier, France
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Abstract

In most mammalian species, females regularly interact with kin, and it may thus be difficult to understand the evolution of some aggressive and harmful competitive behaviour among females, such as infanticide. Here, we investigate the evolutionary determinants of infanticide by females by combining a quantitative analysis of the taxonomic distribution of infanticide with a qualitative synthesis of the circumstances of infanticidal attacks in published reports. Our results show that female infanticide is widespread across mammals and varies in relation to social organization and life-history, being more frequent where females breed in groups and have intense bouts of high reproductive output. Specifically, female infanticide occurs where the proximity of conspecific offspring directly threatens the killer’s reproductive success by limiting access to critical resources for her dependent progeny, including food, shelters, care or a social position. In contrast, infanticide is not immediately modulated by the degree of kinship among females, and females occasionally sacrifice closely related juveniles. Our findings suggest that the potential direct fitness rewards of gaining access to reproductive resources have a stronger influence on the expression of female aggression than the indirect fitness costs of competing against kin.

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.
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Posted November 29, 2018.
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The evolution of infanticide by females in mammals
Dieter Lukas, Elise Huchard
bioRxiv 405688; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/405688
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The evolution of infanticide by females in mammals
Dieter Lukas, Elise Huchard
bioRxiv 405688; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/405688

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