Neighbouring-group composition and within-group relatedness drive extra-group paternity rate in the European badger (Meles meles)

Extra-group paternity (EGP) occurs commonly among group-living mammals and plays an important role in mating systems and the dynamics of sexual selection; however, socio-ecological and genetic correlates of EGP have been underexplored. We use 23 years of demographic and genetic data from a high-density European badger (Meles meles) population, to investigate the relationship between the rate of EGP in litters and mate availability, mate incompatibility and mate quality (heterozygosity). Relatedness between within-group assigned mothers and candidate fathers had a negative quadratic effect on EGP, whereas the number of neighbouring-group candidate fathers had a linear positive effect. We detected no effect of mean or maximum heterozygosity of within-group candidate fathers on EGP. Consequently, EGP was associated primarily with mate availability, subject to within-group genetic effects, potentially to mitigate mate incompatibility and inbreeding. In badgers, cryptic female choice, facili...

社群外父权（Extra-group paternity, EGP）在群居哺乳动物中普遍存在，对交配系统与性选择动态具有重要作用；然而目前针对EGP的社会生态与遗传关联因子的研究尚未得到充分探索。本研究利用来自高密度欧洲獾（Meles meles）种群的23年种群统计与遗传数据，探究了幼崽窝中EGP发生率与配偶可获得性、配偶不相容性及配偶质量（杂合度）之间的关联。组内已确定母本与候选父本之间的亲缘关系对EGP存在负向二次效应，而邻近群组候选父本的数量则呈现线性正向效应。未检测到组内候选父本的平均或最大杂合度对EGP存在显著影响。由此可见，EGP主要与配偶可获得性相关，并受组内遗传效应调控，这或许有助于缓解配偶不相容与近交问题。在欧洲獾中，隐蔽雌性选择（cryptic female choice）有助于...