The contribution of extra‐pair paternity to the variation in lifetime and age‐specific male reproductive success in a socially monogamous species
Sara Raj Pant, Maaike A. Versteegh, Martijn Hammers, Terry Burke, Hannah L. Dugdale, David S. Richardson, Jan Komdeur
Abstract
) to assess if EPP increased the opportunity for selection over that resulting from genetic monogamy. Despite not causing a statistically significant excess (19%) of the former over the latter, EPP contributed substantially (27%) to the variance in lifetime RS, similarly to within-pair paternity (WPP, 39%) and to the positive WPP-EPP covariance (34%). Partitioning the opportunity for selection into age-specific (co)variance components, showed that EPP also provided a substantial contribution at most ages, varying with age. Therefore, despite possibly not playing the main role in shaping sexual selection in Seychelles warblers, EPP provided a substantial contribution to the lifetime and age-specific opportunity for selection, which can influence evolutionary processes in age-structured populations.