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Mating

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Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior

Introduction

Reproduction is the obligatory process to uphold the gene pool from generation to generation for any existing species. Among the other reproductive processes, mating fulfills the purpose of sexual reproduction by pairing of either two opposite sexually reproducing animals or hermaphrodite organisms in terms of copulation for insemination and subsequent internal fertilization. The term mating not only applied for higher vertebrates but also for bacteria, archaea, and viruses where formation of recombinant progeny occurs from the exchange of genomic information from the involved paired individuals. To understand mating, we must focus on its all arms, i.e., mating system, sexual selection, and sexual conflict.

Mating System

Mating is initially dependent upon the mating system which itself is a circumstance based on which an organism shows its sexual behavior and further mate choice or sexual selection occurs. This mating system includes monogamy, polygamy (i.e., polygyny,...

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Shailesh Singh from Department of Zoology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India, for sharing his valuable knowledge on the basics and examples of sexual selection and sexual conflict which helped a lot while writing this manuscript more lucidly.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology, Institute of Science, Bananas Hindu University, Varanasi, India

    Megha Das & Sanjeev Kumar Yadav

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  1. Megha Das
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  2. Sanjeev Kumar Yadav
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Correspondence to Sanjeev Kumar Yadav .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Jennifer Vonk

  2. Department of Psychology, Oakland University Department of Psychology, Rochester, MI, USA

    Todd Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Centre for Neural and Cognitive Science, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, India

    Akash Gautam

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Das, M., Yadav, S.K. (2020). Mating. In: Vonk, J., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_307-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_307-1

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