Article Reviews

Article Review on the Evolution of Mating Systems in Birds and Mammals

Statement of the Problem

The problem regarding recognizing monogamous relationships and mating systems in Birds and Mammals and the reasons behind it.

Literature Review and Critique

Orion suggests that western culture recognizes as regular pattern of mating a system based on nature monogamous relationships However, as is well known, not only the complexity of the relations of a sexual nature and potentially reproductive behind this model is very large as yet, in other cultures, polygamy is an institutionalized practice and current (Orians, 1969). Sexual reproduction is common to all animals, presupposes mating. In the natural world, there are several different mating systems, and although there are some exceptions, in general, what every individual is looking to maximize their reproductive success by doing everything in its power to ensure a greater likelihood of reproduce, passing on their genes to future generations. In some particular cases, if access to the reproduction for any reason is conditioned to some individuals, they sometimes choose to help a progenitor of the family, thus contributing to at least some of their genes are passed on to future generations. The mating systems are classified according to the number of partners and the duration of association between them (Reichard & Boesch, 2003). The critical systems are monogamous, polygamous and promiscuous. Although the birds are "champions of monogamy" and more than 90% of species establish relationships of this nature, many of them to last a lifetime, not just the "divorce" occur with some frequency, such as infidelity is also for many species of this group, a common practice. Mating for life saves the seasonal effort to find a partner, but even in species that typically resort to this strategy, such as Adelie penguins, annual separations may in couples already old, reaching ...