Abstract
Males of many animals exhibit multiple mating behaviours1–3 but most of these alternatives merely enable smaller, competitively inferior males to obtain a few matings where they could get none in regular competition. Some alternatives may match the mating rate of dominant males4,5, but alternatives with higher payoffs than being a nesting or territorial male are virtually unknown. Here, I describe a new alternative, 'piracy', in which the largest males circumvent the costs of nest construction, guarding and potential nest failure by taking over successful nests of other males, spawning in these, and abandoning them to be guarded by the original owner. The overall payoff to a pirate male appears to be above that of the average nesting male and 2.5 to 10 times higher than that of the other documented alternatives in the population.
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van den Berghe, E. Piracy as an alternative reproductive tactic for males. Nature 334, 697–698 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1038/334697a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/334697a0
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