Mate guarding is typically considered a male strategy to protect paternity. However, under some circumstances, females might also benefit from guarding their mate. Female mate guarding might be particularly important in socially polyandrous species in which females compete for access to care-giving males. Because males also benefit from being near their partner to avoid paternity loss, pair members may have a mutual interest in mate guarding in polyandrous species. We studied the time spent together and movements that lead to separation, as behavioral measures of mate guarding, in the classically polyandrous red phalarope (Phalaropus fulicarius). We equipped 64 breeding pairs with miniaturized telemetry loggers with GPS to assess variation in mate-guarding intensity in relation to breeding phenology and season, nest attendance, and the occurrence of extrapair paternity. We show that red phalarope pairs were almost continuously together in the days before clutch initiation with no sex bias in separation movements, indicating mutual contribution to mate guarding. Our results suggest that in red phalaropes, both pair members guard their mate, with limited sexual conflict arising through biases in the operational sex ratio and a trade-off with male nest attendance. We found no clear relationship between mate-guarding intensity and the occurrence of extrapair paternity. In this non-territorial socially polyandrous species, mutual mate guarding might be the process underlying the evolution of a brief but strong social pair bond, with no other purpose than producing a clutch for a care-giving male.

中文翻译：

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性别角色颠倒的鸻鹬鸟之间相互守护配偶，性冲突有限

配偶保护通常被认为是男性保护父权的策略。然而，在某些情况下，雌性也可能从保护配偶中受益。在社会性一妻多夫的物种中，雌性配偶的保护可能尤其重要，在这些物种中，雌性会竞争获得照顾的雄性。由于雄性也受益于靠近伴侣以避免失去亲子关系，因此一妻多夫物种中的配偶成员可能对保护配偶有共同的兴趣。我们研究了经典一妻多夫的红鹬（Phalaropus fulicarius）在一起度过的时间和导致分离的动作，作为保护配偶的行为措施。我们为 64 个繁殖对配备了带 GPS 的小型遥测记录仪，以评估与繁殖物候和季节、巢穴出勤率以及配对外亲子关系发生情况相关的配偶保护强度的变化。我们发现，在开始产卵前的几天里，红色瓣瓣对几乎一直在一起，在分离运动中没有性别偏见，这表明对配偶保护的相互贡献。我们的研究结果表明，在红瓣鹬中，双方成员都会保护自己的配偶，由于操作性性别比例的偏差和雄性巢穴出席率的权衡而产生的性冲突有限。我们发现配偶保护强度与配对外亲子关系的发生之间没有明确的关系。在这种无领地的社会性一妻多夫物种中，相互的配偶保护可能是一种短暂但牢固的社会配对关系进化的过程，其目的只是为照顾照顾的雄性产下一窝。