When I was in California this summer I visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium and I remember seeing the seahorse exhibit. There was one type of seahorse that would stay with a partner for life and often did dances for each other and held tails for periods of the day. I found it very interesting because many people think animals only mate to reproduce and do not always stay together, but as we saw with the gulls in class many animals often find a partner and stay with one another their whole life.
I decided to do more research in the topic and found that there are many species that may show more faithfulness than humans. Swans are another bird species that often mate for life and will make bonds that last year round for many years, although they may “divorce” if there is nesting failure. French angelfish are another species that form a lasting bond. They will live, travel, and hunt in pairs until one dies. Similar to the gulls video, angelfish will also work vigorously to defend their territory from other neighboring pairs.
Albatrosses are another species known for their loyalty. They often fly extensive distances away from each other, but they always return to the same partner when it is time to breed. The bond between the two is formed over several years and will last a lifetime. The females tend to stick close to the breeding habitat, but males often spend a year or two at sea flying around the world.
Although rodents are not typically known for their monogamy there is one species, the prairie vole, who will huddle and groom each other as well as share nest and pup-raising responsibilities and stay together their whole life.
Then, of course, there are the turtle doves, which have been an emblem of love for quite awhile. Other species include wolves, schistosoma mansoni worms, bald eagles, gibbons, black vultures, coyotes, and beavers. It might prove interesting for humans to study the monogamy of these species and why they stay together for life when so many other species do not.
Posted by Caitlin Descovich O'Hare (4)
Source: http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/photos/11-animals-that-mate-for-life/old-faithful
Although complete monogamy is rare throughout the animal kingdom, birds have the highest number of monogamous species. Only 6% of primates are monogamous, of which humans are in (minus those with unhappy marriages, etc.). The angler fish is probably the most well known monogamous animal, but we learned in class how geese were monogamous. A possible explanation may be due to the fact that monogamous relationships do not require spending energy for courtship, and the individual can always rely on the same partner in times of hardship, while polygamous individuals will be on their own.
ReplyDeletePosted by Michael Shi
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ReplyDeletePeter Houlihan said...
ReplyDeleteHi Caitlin,
I love that animals are in love. I know I sound so cheesy but I am a romantic and I love seeing romance outside the human species.
Did you know that there are a group of song birds, I am not sure what their names are exactly, that are monogamous. But they do cheat on their mates. A group of researchers found that these females can lay eggs from the mate they are monogamous with, but also in their nest, they can also lay eggs from the "social father". Social fathers are the males that the females cheated on with.
I found this so interesting to see animals act has humans, causing infidelity.
Posted by Whitney Huynh
Considering how fickle humans are themselves with their, ahem, loyalty, I wonder if the concept of fidelity only rarely adds fitness to survival. While it works for some species, the more reproductively successful ones rely more on frequent copulations than consistent companions.
ReplyDeletePosted by Jacob Lane.
Prarie Voles mate for life because the males have a lot of receptors for Vasopressin in their brain. And vasopressin is released during copulation and makes the vole feel good about being with this one mate. The females and other species of voles do not have these excess vasopressin receptors though, which is very interesting. I wander if being with one mate in prarie vole or any other species is beneficial to amount of offspring produced in a lifetime and that is why some animals choose to stay together?
ReplyDeletePosted by Noelle Kellicker
Interesting, when's the Seahorse single "I wanna hold your tail" coming out? It's nice to see some species of animals are able to maintain lifelong mates, and it's especially sweet when they perform small behaviors with each other, you know, other than actually mating. I wonder what the overall percentage of lifelong mates in animals are? Or what class of animals (birds, fish, etc.) have the highest number of species with lifelong mates?
ReplyDeleteToo bad this isn't sping semester, this would have been a good Valentine's post.
Posted by Austin Gray
It is interesting to hear about animals that choose just one partner to mate with for their whole lives. Do you know is there is an evolutionary reason behind monogamy that would make it more appealing than finding a different mate every year? Perhaps because it saves them energy that would be used for mating calls and displays?
ReplyDeletePosted by Janelle Hayes
This post is great. I love hearing how other animals other than humans tend to take an monogamous life style, for the most part. I always thought that our society shaped a family image, but the fact that other animals do this too can show that maybe it is much more gene-linked. It is also very interesting that humans are not the most monogamous, and other animals can be much more monogamous than humans. That is very interesting but a little upsetting at the same time!
ReplyDeletePosted by Abbie Saranteas
Michael, it is interesting that you brought up energy spent on courtship as that may be a good reason why animals would stay paired together. Perhaps that is why birds stay with a partner if reproduction is successful. I think it is in most animals genes to not be monogamous because being faithful to one mate requires an individual to invest their reproductive potential on one mate.
ReplyDeleteWhitney, yes there are many instances of infidelity in animals just like with people. What I found particularly interesting is infidelity in black vultures. Although certainly not the prettiest animals they have been known to attack individuals caught in the act of infidelity. In their species it is very important for offspring to have both parents around and the whole species takes it very strictly to be monogamous.
Jacob, similarly in my response to Michael I found that it is in the genes of almost all species to have many mates as it lead to more reproductive success. It can be very risky to put all your reproductive potential in one mate, which is most likely why only 3-5% of all mammal species are documented as monogamous.
Noelle, I also read about voles while looking into this topic and I too found it interesting that levels of neurotransmitters affect the male voles. I guess female voles must be forced to stay with one mate because the males become so infatuated with one female they will often attack other females that approach them.
Austin, I found that 3-5% of mammals are monogamous, but apparently a high percentage of bird species are monogamous, around 90%. Also, thanks it probably would have made a great Valentine’s post!
Janelle, I found that one of the main reasons found for monogamy is for the safety of the offspring. There are some species where it is very important that both parents care for the young and watch out for them, like in bird species, which requires mates to stay together for reproductive success. I am not sure if that is the case for all monogamous species, but for many bird species it is true.
Abbie, thanks, I love finding out about faithful species as well. I think that other species most likely do this for reproductive success or because of their genes, which may change the way you view human relationships. Although, we probably focus a lot more on relationships.
Posted by Caitlin Descovich O'Hare
It's important to note in this post that monogamy does not equate to animals having just one partner. Studies have shown that many of these animals that mate for life continue to cheat on each other throughout their relationship. The genetic makeup of babies born often have multiple fathers. Animal nature, huh?
ReplyDeleteBy Joseph Needleman