DOI: 10.5061/dryad.bcc2fqz7s
title: Female need for paternal care shapes variation in extra-pair paternity in a cooperative breeder

description: Socially-monogamous females regularly mate with males outside the pair
 bond. The prevailing explanation for this behavior is that females gain
 genetic benefits resulting from increased fitness of extra-pair offspring.
 Furthermore, because of the risk of reduced paternal care in response to
 cuckoldry, females are expected to seek extra-pair copulations when they
 can rear offspring with little help from their social partner
 (“constrained female” hypothesis). We tested these hypotheses and analyzed
 variation in paternal care in the Afrotropical, facultative cooperative
 breeding placid greenbul (Phyllastrephus placidus). Overall, ca. 50% of
 the offspring resulted from extra-pair (and extra-group) mating.
 Identified extra-pair males were in most cases neighboring dominant males,
 yet never within-group subordinates. As predicted by the constrained
 female hypothesis, the occurrence of extra-pair paternity (EPP) increased
 with the number of cooperative helpers (and not with total group size).
 However, dominant males did not adjust their food provisioning rates in
 response to EPP. Although extra-pair males were more strongly related to
 the dominant female and less heterozygous than the latter’s social mate,
 this did not result in more inbred extra-pair offspring, likely because
 identified extra-pair males were not representative of the extra-pair male
 population. While earlier studies on EPP mainly focused on male genetic
 quality, results from this study provide evidence that female’s social
 context may affect extra-pair strategies too.
description: The excel file contains three sheets:
   - "Genotypes": 1443 individuals
 were genotyped at up to 12 microsatelites.  
 - "Nestlings": 237 nestlings from 137 broods.
 NEST: ID of the nest POP_CLUSTER: forest
 fragments were divided in three population clusters, i.e.
 "Chawia", "Ngangao" and
 "Small_fragments". YEAR: year 0708
 correpsonds to breeding season 2007-2008 NESTLING:
 nestling ring number TARS: tarsus lenght of the
 neslting SMI: Scale Mass Index of the
 nestling HETERO: heterozygosity of the
 nestling WPY: within-pair young (yes: 1, no:
 0) NWPY: number of within-pair young in the
 brood NEPY: number of extra-pair young in the
 brood EPB: at least one extra-pair offspring in the
 brood (yes: 1, no: 2) NSUB: number of subordinates in
 the group NHELP: number of helpers in the group
 (subordinates providing food to nesltings) DOMINAN_
 FEMALE: dominant female ring number TARS_DF: tarsus
 lenght of the dominant female HET_DF: heterozygosity of
 the dominant female DOMINANT_MALE: dominant male ring
 number TARS_DM: tarsus lenght of the dominant
 male HET_DM: heterozygosity of the dominant
 male RELAT_DM: relatedness between the dominant male
 and female FATHER_MALE: ring number of the genetic
 father (as assigned by the program COLONY) TARS_FATHER:
 tarsus lenght of the genetic father HET_FATHER:
 heterozygosity of the genetic father RELAT_FATHER:
 relatedness between the genetic father and the dominant female
   - "Food providioning":
 NEST: ID of the nest POP_CLUSTER: forest
 fragments were divided in three population clusters, i.e.
 "Chawia", "Ngangao" and
 "Small_fragments". YEAR: year 0708
 correpsonds to breeding season 2007-2008 FEED_FREQ_DM:
 number of feeds per hour per nestling by the dominant male
 AVG_FOODSIZE_DM: average prey size brought by the dominant
 male FEED_FREQ_DF: number of feeds per hour per
 nestling by the dominant female AVG_FOODSIZE_DF:
 average prey size brought by the dominant female NHELP:
 number of helpers in the group (subordinates providing food to
 nesltings) AGE_NESTLING: age in days of the
 neslting(s)