European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 14, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Mating for life it s not for the Birds or the bees not every Spring Black capped chickadees break up into pairs top sketch that Are stable and monogamous a most of the time. The Queen Bee departs her hive Only once to collect All the sperm she needs fora lifetime from up to 25 drones. By Natalie Angier new York times a Romance. Can any sight be As Sweet As a pair of Mallard ducks gliding gracefully across a Pond male by female seemingly inseparable or better yet two Cygnet swans which As biologists have always told us remain coupled for life their necks and fates lovingly intertwined. Coupled for life with just a bit of adultery Cuc Oldry and gang rape on the Side. Alas for sentiment and the greeting card Industry biologists lately have discovered that in the animal kingdom there is almost no such thing As monogamy. In a burst of new studies that Are destroying Many of the most deeply cherished notions about animal mating habits researchers report that even among species assumed to have faithful tendencies and to need a Strong pair Bond to rear their Young infidelity is rampant. Biologists Long believed for example that up to 94 percent of Bird species were monogamous with one Mother and one father sharing the Burden of raising their Chicks. Now using advanced techniques to determine the paternity of offspring biologists Are finding that on average 30 percent or More of the baby Birds in any nest were sired by someone other than the resident male. Indeed researchers Are having trouble finding Bird species that Are not prone to such evident philandering. A this is an extremely hot topic a said or. Paul w. Sherman a biologist at Cornell University in Ithaca . Quot you can hardly pick up a current Issue of an ornithology journal without seeing a report of another supposedly monogamous species that in t. It s causing a revolution in Bird  in related studies of creatures already known to be polygamous researchers Are finding their subjects to be even More craftily faithless than previously believed. And to the astonishment perhaps Dingru Nelement of Many traditional animal behaviour its much of that debauchery is committed by females. Tracking rabbits Elk and ground squirrels through the Fields researchers have Learned that the females of both species will copulate with numerous males in a single Day each time expelling the bulk of any partners semen to make room for the next mating. Experts theorize that the female is storing up a variety of semen perhaps so that different sperm will fertilize different eggs and thus assure genetic diversity in her offspring. Most efficiently energetic of All May be the Queen Bee who on her sole Outing from her hive mates with As Many As 25 accommodating but doomed drones. Scientists also have gathered evidence of Many remarkable instances of attempts by males to counteract philandering by females. Among Idaho ground squirrels a male will stick unerringly by a females Side whenever she is Fertile sometimes chasing her Down a Hole and sitting on top of it to prevent her from cavorting with his competitors. Other squirrels simply use a rodent s version of a chastity Belt Topping an ejaculation with a rubber like emission that acts As a plug. The new research says scientists gives the lie to the old stereotype that Iii Only males Are promiscuous. Quot its All baloney Quot said Sherman. Quot both males and females seek extra pair copulations. And what we be found lately is probably just the tip of the  even mammals which have never been paragons of virtue Are proving to be worse than expected and experts Are revising downward the already pathetic figure of 2 percent to 4 percent that represented they thought the number of Faithfull mammal species. Quot it was believed that Field mice certain Wolf like animals and a few South american primates like marmosets and tamarins were monogamous Quot said or. David j. Gubernick a psychologist at the University of Wisconsin in Madison who studies monogamy in mammals. Quot but new data indicate that they too engage in extra pair  scientists say their new insights into mating and the near universality of infidelity Are reshaping their ideas about animal behaviour and the dynamics of different animal social systems. Quot its been a bandwagon Quot said or. Susan m. Smith a biologist at it. Holyoke College in South Hadley mass. A nobody can take monogamy for granted anymore in any species they look at so we re All trying to rewrite the rules we once thought  biologists say their new research suggests that Many animal social systems might have developed As much to allow animals to selectively cheat As they did out a need for animals to Divide into Happy couples. They propose that pair Bonds among animals might be Mere marriages of convenience allowing both partners enough stability to raise their Young while leaving a bit of Slack for the occasional Dalliance. More than anything else say biologists they Are increasingly impressed by the complexity of animal sexuality. Quot it seems that All our old assumptions Are incorrect and that there a a big difference Between who a hanging out with whom and who a actually mating with whom Quot said or. Patricia Adair Gowaty a biologist at Clemson University in South Carolina and one of the first to question the existence of Fidelity among animals. Quot for those of us in the Field this is a tremendously exciting  researchers say that Many of the misconceptions about monogamy and infidelity began in Darwin s Day when he and other naturalists made presumptions perhaps understandable about mating based on Field observations of coupled animals. Nearly All Birds form pairs during the Breeding season and biologists assumed that the pair was necessary for the survival of the Young. Without the contributions of both males and females to feed and protect the Young experts thought few offspring would make it to the fledgling stage. And that demand for stability biologists assumed Likely included monogamy As Well. But As Field researchers became More sophisticated in their observation techniques they began spotting instances in which one member of a supposedly monogamous Avian couple would flit off for a t�te-6-Tete with a Paramour. Such sightings inspired biologists to apply Dan fingerprinting and other techniques used in paternity suits to help determine the parentage of Chicks. They discovered that Between 10 percent and 70 percent of the offspring in a nest did not belong to the male caring for them. Redoubling their efforts in the Field biologists began to seek explanations for the infidelities. In some cases the female clearly was the one seeking outside liaisons. Smith has studied the familiar Black capped Chickadee of North America. She had found that during Winter a flock of chickadees forms a dominance Hierarchy in which every Bird knows its position relative to its Fellows As Well As the ranking of the other Birds. In the Spring Breeding season says Smith the flock Breaks up into pairs with each pair defending a territorial Niche and Breeding in it. Though she has determined that infidelity is rare among the chickadees it does occur Quot and in a very interesting Way Quot she said. On occasion a female mated to a Low ranking male will leave the nest and sneak into the territory of a higher ranking male nearby. Quot in every single Case of extra pair copulations the female was t moving randomly but very selectively Quot said Smith. Quot she was mating with a Bird ranked above her own  Smith suggests that the cheating Chickadee May have the Best of both worlds a stable mate at Home to help rear the Young along with the Chance to bestow on at least one or two of her offspring the Superior genes of a dominant male. Researchers have shown that the California mouse May be one of the very few monogamous species. Friday september 14, 1990 the stars and stripes a a a Page 17