Polygamy is a purely person choice and has very little to do with religion. Males use many different strategies to try to deal with these uncertainties: For this reason wives will start competing for their husband’s love and attention. The advantage of polygamy is that by mating with multiple females, he increases his chances of fertilizing an egg/some eggs. The largest advantage for males in a polygynous mating system is the increased fitness and reproductive success of the lone male because he will father all the offspring. Being the sole male of a harem is highly advantageous for the male because he has a much higher chance of his progeny surviving, which means he is passing on his genes to more individuals. The duration of the bond may vary from one breeding period to life-long. ADVERTISEMENTS: (2) Jealousy, hatred and quarrel among the women are found due to lack of understanding among the wives. In these cases, the benefits from superior resource access must outweigh the opportunity cost of giving up monogamous parental care by a male. [3] (Some studies also show that EPC is less common in polygyny compared to monogamy. The disadvantage is that the more females he mates with, the less he can contribute to raising any one offspring. Monogamy--a bond between two partners of opposite sex--is a relatively rare phenomenon in mammals (3-5%, from a total of 4000 mammalian species). [6], When two animals mate, they both share an interest in the success of the offspring, though often to different extremes. PREVIOUS ARTICLE The Pros and Cons of Zoos May 15, 2015 - 6:52 pm. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. Although such state is shunned by many, it has existed for thousands of years now in various cultures around the world. An explanation for why polygynous systems persist is explained by the polygyny threshold model. Hasselquist, D. (1994). In the state of nature, people were generally polygamous, as are most animals. Lek mating is frequently regarded as a form of polygyny, because one male mates with many females, but lek-based mating systems differ in that the male has no attachment to the females with whom he mates, and that mating females lack attachment to one another. Monogamy is the ideal in most contemporary cultures, but other options include open relationships and polyamory. Premium Membership is now 50% off! [6], Extra-pair copulations are a strategy used by females to avoid the sexual conflict caused by polygyny, allowing them access to better mate choice. This increase consequently reduces the genetic diversity of the community, often leading to increased inbreeding. How Humans Evolved (preferably the downloadable pdf version): WW Norton & Company, New York. [8], In 1977, Stephen T. Emlen and Lewis W. Oring created a mating systems model that shows how resource distribution affects female living patterns and subsequently, mating systems. Some females willingly choose polygyny in order to gain access to the "best" resources available. Polygamy is known to occur in…, Therefore, monogamy is favoured over polygamy only when some environmental resource (food, for example) is limited and when the maximum survival of young requires the care of both parents. Females in the harem are able to breed at the same time, indicating that harem size and the number of male offspring are related. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. [6] The combination of resource distribution, parental care, and female breeding synchrony determines what mating strategies the limited sex will employ. (2009). The various types of polygyny result because of the differential access individuals have to resources.[10]. ‘Review lecture: mammalian mating systems.'. Polygamy is the opposite idea of monogamy, when there is one partner in a marriage. The disadvantage is that the more females he mates with, the less he can contribute to raising any one offspring. Dissertation. Many, if not most, quail and partridge are monogamous, as are ptarmigan, guinea fowl, the hoatzin, some pheasant, and those megapodes and cracids that have been studied. Some ethologists consider this finding to be support for the 'female choice' hypothesis of mating systems in birds. Polygyny (/pəˈlɪdʒɪniː/; from Neo-Greek πολυγυνία, from πολύ- poly-, "many", and γυνή gyne, "woman" or "wife")[1] is a mating system in which one male lives and mates with multiple females but each female only mates with a single male. When females are spatially stable in and around a resource, males pursue a resource defense strategy and polygyny occurs when the females are clumped and the offspring require little to no parental care (e.g. The female disadvantages of mating with an already-mated male bird can be overcome with ample resources provided by the male, resulting in female choice. …others show varying types of polygamy, usually with members of both sexes being more or less promiscuous. In this situation, the female has the option of breeding with an unmated male in a poor-quality territory or with an already-mated male in a high-quality territory. 1909 Words 8 Pages. Females in polygyny may have less extra-pair copulation. Researchers have pointed out that in most of confli… [12] A polygynous leader male will always be the best mating choice before he is beaten by another male, so it is harder for females to find a partner better than their mate in polygyny as compared to monogamy. Some examples include the red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) and house…. As we can conclude from the discussion above, there are numerous advantages and disadvantages of polygamy. Extra-pair copulations exemplify sexual conflict, a situation in which one behavior is advantageous for one sex, but disadvantageous for the other.[6]. [13], It is also possible that broad song repertoires are a supplementary cue for a good mate, in conjunction with male territory size and quality. Interviews with the Code Talkers. [13], From an evolutionary standpoint, the most predominant characteristic that is often found in polygynous mating systems is extreme sexual dimorphism. In polygynous systems there is less genetic diversity due to the fact that one male sires all of the offspring. In fact … https://www.britannica.com/science/polygamy-animal-behaviour, animal social behaviour: Social interactions involving sex. In a mating system, the limiting sex (usually females) is the one that the limited sex (usually males) tries to monopolize. B. Monogamy can exist with or without marriage, and can be practiced by people of all sexual orientations. Many factors affect female aggression including predator density, habitat quality, nest spacing, and territory size. In these cases, females will choose males based on secondary sexual characteristics, which may indicate access to better and more resources.