Synonyms
Definition
Males that sneak fertilizations with females to circumvent direct competition with dominant males.
Introduction
Sneak copulations often occur as a way to circumvent direct competition with dominant or territorial males during mating. This gives males a chance to gain access to mates and increase their reproductive success, without the costs associated with aggressive interactions. Sneak copulations can be used opportunistically, or they can be the primary behavioral phenotype used by individuals either during a certain stage in their life or throughout their entire lifespan.
Sneaking as a Reproductive Tactics
In systems with alternative reproductive tactics (alternative behavioral phenotypes used to access mates, ARTs), the tactics typically consist of large “bourgeois” (dominant/territorial) males and smaller “parasitic” (sneaker) males (Taborsky 1998). Dominant males often guard territories and/or females...
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References
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Partridge, C. (2017). Sneak Copulation as an Alternative Mating Strategy. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3610-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3610-1
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