Costs to females and benefits to males from forced copulations in fruit flies
Forced copulation, which is perhaps the most extreme form of sexual conflict, is ubiquitous among many species including humans. To better understand the evolution and maintenance of forced copulations, it is imperative to assess their costs and benefits. We followed up on recent studies indicating frequent forced copulations in two wild populations of fruit flies, […]
Sexual stereotypes: the case of sexual cannibalism
There is a long-standing debate within the field of sexual selection regarding the potential projection of stereotypical sex roles onto animals by researchers. It has been argued that this anthropomorphic view may be hampering research in this area, for example by prioritizing the study of male sexual adaptations over female ones. We investigated how males […]
The direct costs of living in a sexually harassing environment
Sexual conflict can lead to individuals evolving behaviours to circumvent preferences of the opposite sex. For example, females have been shown to adjust their behaviours depending on the risk of sexual harassment. In the present study we investigated the effects of sexual harassment in sailfin mollies, Poecilia latipinna, on both females and males depending on […]
Maternal testosterone influences a begging component that makes fathers work harder in chick provisioning
Abstract In species with biparental care, parents disagree evolutionarily over the amount of care that each of them is willing to provide to offspring. It has recently been hypothesised that females may try to manipulate their mates by modifying offspring begging behaviour through yolk hormone deposition, shifting the division of labour in their own favour. […]
Signals in family conflicts
Although the role of animal signals in the resolution of family conflicts has been thoroughly studied, it has been typically analysed in isolated two-player interactions. For instance, parents are usually considered as the sole receivers of offspring begging signals or mates the receivers of sexual displays. However, this view does not wholly encompass the dynamic […]
The Wood-Gush legacy: A sociobiology perspective to fertility and welfare in chickens
Wood-Gush’s seminal work on the social behaviour and welfare of fowl populations laid the foundations of a sociobiology approach to understand the evolutionary nature of social interactions and their applied significance for domestic animals. Within this context, maintaining high fertility and welfare standards pose key challenges. Reviewing recent advances in the study of sexual behaviour […]