The evolution of male infanticide in relation to sexual selection in mammalian carnivores

Abstract

The evolution of infanticide by males has often been explained by the sexual selection hypothesis, which posits that infanticide improves male reproductive success by shortening the interbirth intervals of the mothers of the killed offspring. In Carnivora, however, the fitness advantages assumed in this hypothesis have been shown in only a few species, and it has been argued that male infanticide may be nonadaptive in pinniped carnivores. According to the sexual selection hypothesis, male infanticide is expected to be more prevalent in species in which males are subjected to stronger sexual selection through intrasexual competition over mates. We examined a phylogenetically corrected relationship between male infanticide and sexual size dimorphism (SSD) as a measure of the intensity of sexual selection in carnivores. Our analyses failed to detect a significant association between the occurrence of male infanticide and SSD across carnivores, although they showed that, among fissipeds (typically terrestrial carnivores), males in species with stronger male-biased SSD are significantly more likely to commit infanticide. This suggests that the evolution of male infanticide is correlated with intense sexual selection in fissipeds. In pinnipeds (Odobenidae, Otariidae, and Phocidae), there was no significant association between male infanticide and SSD. Assuming that SSD represents the intensity of sexual selection on males, this result is consistent with the argument that infanticide by male pinnipeds is not a sexually selected behaviour.