The dilemma of female mate selection in the brown bear, a species with sexually selected infanticide

• Published in: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
• Main Authors: Bellemain, E., Zedrosser, A., Manel, S., Waits, L., Taberlet, P., Swenson, J.
• Other Authors: Laboratoire d'Ecologie Alpine (LECA), Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Department of Ecology and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), Department of Integrative Biology, Universität für Bodenkultur Wien = University of Natural Resources and Life Vienne, Autriche (BOKU), Fish and Wildlife Resources, University of Idaho Moscow, USA, Norwegian Institute for Nature Management
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2005
• Subjects: female choice; infanticide; mating system; microsatellites; parentage analysis; Ursus arctos; [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology; [SDV.BID]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Biodiversity; [SDV.EE]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Ecology; environment
• Online Access: https://hal.science/halsde-00274249; https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2005.3331

International audience Because of differential investment in gametes between sexes, females tend to be the more selective sex. Based on this concept, we investigate mate selection in a large carnivore: the brown bear (Ursus arctos).We hypothesize that, in this species with sexually selected infanticide (SSI), females may be faced with a dilemma: either select a high-quality partner based on phenotypic criteria, as suggested by theories of mate choice, or rather mate with future potentially infanticidal males as a counter-strategy to SSI.We evaluated which male characteristics were important in paternity assignment. Among males available in the vicinity of the females, the largest, most heterozygous and less inbred and also the geographically closest males were more often the fathers of the female's next litter. We suggest that female brown bears may select the closest males as a counter-strategy to infanticide and exercise a post-copulatory cryptic choice, based on physical attributes, such as a large body size, reflecting male genetic quality. However, male–male competition either in the form of fighting before copulation or during the post-copulatory phase, in the form of sperm competition, cannot entirely be ruled out.