Publications by authors named "Rebecca I Haughey"
Article Synopsis
- The reasons behind female sea turtles mating with multiple partners and having multiple fathers for their clutches or litters are debated, with theories ranging from potential benefits to simply being a result of frequent male-female interactions.
- Research across 30 sea turtle rookeries found a weak correlation between multiple paternity and the size of the rookeries, suggesting that female mating behavior is influenced more by movement patterns than just the number of males present.
- When taking into account how sea turtles move and interact during the breeding season, a strong correlation was found (r=0.96) between the density of males and multiple paternity, indicating that multiple mating may not provide benefits but is primarily a consequence of higher encounters with males.
Why females would mate with multiple partners and have multiple fathers for clutches or litters is a long-standing enigma. There is a broad dichotomy in hypotheses ranging from polyandry having benefits to simply being an unavoidable consequence of a high incidence of male-female encounters. If females simply give in to mating when it is too costly to avoid being harassed by males (convenience polyandry), then there should be a higher rate of mating as density increases.
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