Polygyny, mate-guarding, and posthumous fertilization as alternative male mating strategies

Alternative male mating strategies within populations are thought to be evo lutionarily stable because different behaviors allow each male type to succ essfully gain access to females. Although alternative male strategies are w idespread among animals, quantitative evidence for the success of discrete male strategies is available for only a few systems. We use nuclear microsa tellites to estimate the paternity rates of three male lizard strategies pr eviously modeled as a rock-paper-scissors game. Each strategy has strengths that allow it to outcompete one morph. and weaknesses that leave it Vulner able to the strategy of another. Blue-throated males mate-guard their femal es and avoid cuckoldry by yellow-throated "sneaker" males, but mate-guardin g is ineffective against aggressive orange-throated neighbors. The ultradom inant orange-throated males are highly polygynous and maintain large territ ories; they overpower blue-throated neighbors and cosire offspring with the ir females, but are often cuckolded by yellow-throated males. Finally, yell ow-throated sneaker males sire offspring via secretive copulations and ofte n share paternity of offspring within a female's clutch. Sneaker males sire more offspring posthumously, indicating that sperm competition may be an i mportant component of their strategy.