Mating Systems
In sociobiology and behavioural ecology, the term mating system is used to describe the ways in which animal societies are structured in relation to sexual behaviour. The mating system specifies which males mate with which females, and under what circumstances.
The following are some of the mating systems generally recognised in humans and other animals:
- Monogamy: Two individuals have an exclusive mating relationship.
- Polygamy: A single individual concurrently carries a relationship/mates with one or more of the opposite sex. Three types are recognized:
- Polygyny (the most common polygamous mating system in vertebrates so far studied): One male has an exclusive relationship with two or more females.
- Polyandry: One female has an exclusive relationship with two or more males.
- Polygynandry: Two or more individuals have an exclusive relationship with two or more individuals from the opposite sex; the numbers of males and females need not be equal, and in vertebrate species studied so far, there are usually fewer males.
- Promiscuity: Any male and female will mate within the social group.
Read more about this topic: Animal Sexual Behaviour
Famous quotes containing the words mating and/or systems:
“The elephant, not only the largest but the most intelligent of animals, provides us with an excellent example. It is faithful and tenderly loving to the female of its choice, mating only every third year and then for no more than five days, and so secretly as never to be seen, until, on the sixth day, it appears and goes at once to wash its whole body in the river, unwilling to return to the herd until thus purified. Such good and modest habits are an example to husband and wife.”
—St. Francis De Sales (1567–1622)
“What is most original in a man’s nature is often that which is most desperate. Thus new systems are forced on the world by men who simply cannot bear the pain of living with what is. Creators care nothing for their systems except that they be unique. If Hitler had been born in Nazi Germany he wouldn’t have been content to enjoy the atmosphere.”
—Leonard Cohen (b. 1934)