ABSTRACT
Classifying mating systems allows us to attempt to make sense of the complex sociosexual behaviors seen in males and females. Classification schemes for mating systems have changed over time since not all investigators agree on the relative importance of different factors involved in the evolution and display of a mating system. More recently, a number of investigators have paid attention to inter and intraspecific variation in mating patterns. Advances in technology also have allowed greater insight into the details of the neuroendocrine and genetic mechanisms underlying mating systems. Our own research has focused on prairie voles, a species in which some members of the population display social monogamy but not always genetic monogamy. Mating patterns not only vary between populations but males display alternative mating tactics more frequently than females. The ecological, neuroendocrine and genetic underpinnings of the behaviors that compose the mating system appear complex. Future work integrating the mechanisms underlying these sociosexual behaviors with an eco-evolutionary framework should provide further insight into the mating systems of prairie voles as well as other animals.
