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Strategies and counterstrategies to infanticide in mammals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 1998

LUIS A. EBENSPERGER
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, Boston University, 5 Cummington Street, Boston, MA 02215, U.S.A. Present address: Departamento de Ecología, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Católica de Chile, Casilla 114-D, Santiago, Chile.
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Abstract

I analyse and summarize the empirical evidence in mammals supporting alternative benefits that individuals may accrue when committing nonparental infanticide. Nonparental infanticide may provide the perpetrator with nutritional benefits, increased access to limited resources, increased reproductive opportunities, or it may prevent misdirecting parental care to unrelated offspring. The possibility that infanticide is either a neutral or maladaptive behaviour also is considered. I devote the second half of this article to reviewing potential mechanisms that individuals may use to prevent infanticide. These counterstrategies include the early termination of pregnancy, direct aggression by the mother against intruders, the formation of coalitions for group defence, the avoidance of infanticidal conspecifics, female promiscuity, and territoriality. I evaluate the support for each benefit and counterstrategy across different groups of mammals and make suggestions for future research.

Type
Review Article
Copyright
Cambridge Philosophical Society 1998

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