Animal Divorce: When and Why Pairs Break Up
Animal Divorce: When and Why Pairs Break Up
Many species of birds and other vertebrates form pair bonds and mate with just one other individual for much of their lives. But the unions don’t always work out. Scientists want to know the underlying factors.
Many species of birds and other vertebrates form pair bonds and mate with just one other individual for much of their lives. But the unions don’t always work out. Scientists want to know the underlying factors.
monogamy
Be My Vole-entine: How Love and Loss Change the Brain
Paige Nicklas | May 16, 2024 | 4 min read
Neuroscientists studying prairie voles discovered that dopamine in the brain gushes when the animals are with their life partners and that loss of a partner erased this neurochemical signature.
Infographic: A New Look at Monogamy Across the Animal Kingdom
Catherine Offord | Jun 1, 2022 | 2 min read
Advances in genetics in recent years has revealed that many apparently exclusive pairs in fact sometimes mate with individuals other than their partner, but social monogamy is widespread.
On Becoming Human
Mary Beth Aberlin | Aug 1, 2016 | 3 min read
Some thoughts on going to the Galápagos
Opinion: Monogamy and Cooperation Are Connected Through Multiple Links
David F. Westneat and Jacqueline R. Dillard | Aug 1, 2016 | 4 min read
Why does cooperation evolve most often in monogamous animals?
When Males Kill Young
Jyoti Madhusoodanan | Nov 13, 2014 | 3 min read
Many social factors contributed to the evolution of male infanticide in mammal societies.
The Roots of Monogamy
Dan Cossins | Jul 31, 2013 | 2 min read
A new analysis suggests that infanticide drove the evolution of pair living in some primate species, though another study reaches a different conclusion.