Piracy as an alternative reproductive tactic for males

Males of many animals exhibit multiple mating behaviours but most of these alternatives merely enable smaller, competitively inferior males to obtain a few matings where they could get none in regular competition. Here, the author describes a new a alternative, "piracy", in which the largest males circumvent the cost of nest construction, guarding and potential nest failure by taking over successful nests of other males, spawning in these, and abandoning them to be guarded by the original owner. The overall payoff to a pirate male appears to be above that of the average nesting male and 2.5 to 10 times higher than that of the other documented alternatives in the population.