FEMALE COUNTERSTRATEGIES TO MALE ALTERNATIVE REPRODUCTIVE BEHAVIORS IN PRIMATES AND OTHER MAMMALS

This monograph discusses female counterstrategies to male alternative repro- ductive behaviors (ARB) that impose a cost on the inclusive fitness of females under a variety of environmental regimes. Ceteris paribus, females may be viewed as host organisms exploited by male parasites, a condition that may be deleterious to females. Sometimes, however, male parasitism is beneficial to females, and the fac- tors inducing these states are explored. It is argued that researchers should increase efforts to investigate and to explain female reproductive behaviors, including both direct and indirect types of aggression. A simple mathematical treatment is ad- vanced to exemplify the antecedents and outcomes of social skew for individual life- time reproductive success. Providing both novel and derived perspectives on female reproductive behavior, this monograph attempts to clarify definitions of the female state, to consider the costs and benefits of the "female problem", to deconstruct the myths associated with the female biostate, to consider policing in relation to repro- ductive and social skew, to evaluate the manifestations of power by females, to describe male ARB and their potential consequences for female targets, to delineate female counterstrategies to male ARB, and to consider outstanding questions re- lated to female counterstrategies, including suggestions for future research. Female counterstrategies are discussed in the context of a popular schema whereby behav- iors classifiable as persuasion, coercion ,o rforce are expected to be employed to re- press competition in groups. All of the responses designated to function as these types of behaviors are presumed to facilitate fitness if genetically correlated in con- texts in which the female biostate occasions stress or other costs beyond some threshold levels optimal for survival and reproduction.