Are any Animals Truly Monogamous?

Monogamy isn’t that popular in the animal kingdom, and it turns out that even "love birds" are often cheaters.

CREDITS
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Created by Henry Reich
Illustration and Animation: Ever Salazar
Production and Writing Team: Alex Reich, Peter Reich, Emily Elert
Thanks to our Subbable supporter ALFREDO STAGG for making MinuteEarth possible!

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REFERENCES
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Barash, D. P., & Lipton, J. E. (2002). The myth of monogamy: Fidelity and infidelity in animals and people. Macmillan.

Brooked, M. G., Rowley, I., Adams, M., & Baverstock, P. R. (1990). Promiscuity: an inbreeding avoidance mechanism in a socially monogamous species?. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 26(3), 191-199.

Chapais, B. (2013). Monogamy, strongly bonded groups, and the evolution of human social structure. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews, 22(2), 52-65.

de Waal, F. B., & Gavrilets, S. (2013). Monogamy with a purpose. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(38), 15167-15168.

Double, M., & Cockburn, A. (2000). Pre--dawn infidelity: females control extra-pair mating in superb fairy--wrens. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences, 267(1442), 465-470.

Kraaijeveld, K., Carew, P. J., Billing, T., Adcock, G. J., & Mulder, R. A. (2004). Extra‐pair paternity does not result in differential sexual selection in the mutually ornamented black swan (Cygnus atratus). Molecular Ecology, 13(6), 1625-1633.

Ophir, A. G., Phelps, S. M., Sorin, A. B., & Wolff, J. O. (2008). Social but not genetic monogamy is associated with greater breeding success in prairie voles.Animal Behaviour, 75(3), 1143-1154.

Reichard, U. (2002). Monogamy - a Variable Relationship. MaxPlanckResearch Conference Report.

Thusius, K. J., Peterson, K. A., Dunn, P. O., & Whittingham, L. A. (2001). Male mask size is correlated with mating success in the common yellowthroat.Animal Behaviour, 62(3), 435-446.

Wan, D., Chang, P., & Yin, J. (2013). Causes of extra-pair paternity and its inter-specific variation in socially monogamous birds. Acta Ecologica Sinica, 33(3), 158-166.

Webster, M. S., Tarvin, K. A., Tuttle, E. M., & Pruett‐Jones, S. (2007). Promiscuity drives sexual selection in a socially monogamous bird. Evolution,61(9), 2205-2211.

[Leotique]

Diplozoon paradoxum...still a better love story than twilight :)

[cazmaestro]

'Will you be my Diplozoon paradoxum'

[uzernam]

So I guess instead of calling a couple "lovebirds" it'd be better to call them "loveworms"? Loveparasites? Lovebloodsuckers? hmm..

[lindyhop]

Valentine's Day Card: "I love you so much I want to fuse with you and spend our lives blissfully sucking blood out of a fish's gills"

[danbark]

i still love it when people go around "oh see animals do it too! so its ok! its natural, cheating is part of nature!" well yeah there are some animals that literally kill and eat their babies so go ahead and use that line of logic

[erhixon]

I GET IT! This explains the story of The Ugly Duckling.

[akafacts]

As a Pokemon professor I can tell you now that at the Pokemon Daycare I run, there is little to NO monogamy. ...Still trying to figure out how the Eggs keep appearing though.

[utilizator]

The comments are stranger than usual...

[redcharget]

Male bird: u cheating on me?
Female bird: yes
Male bird: good, we need more variety

[logicalfundy]

. . . although I should note that looking for moral guidance from the animal kingdom probably isn't the wisest idea (murder, theft, and other things we consider crimes are also rampant in the animal kingdom . . .).

[RubyCarrots]

Albatross seems to be the only one that's actually loyal, they literally can only pick one mate in their entire lives comfortably. If a partner dies, and the living member's fertility drops significantly often never breeding again or if they do, fail to hatch most eggs.

[Adovock]

Penguins practice monogamy. Male penguins present a female penguin with a rock from the shore. If the female says no, the male tends to wander off on his own and dies from depression.

[BinkieMcFartnuggets]

Does Maury reveal the paternity results to the birds?

[KyleRavenborn]

OH MY LORDE I'M ROLLING! I read the title and decided to check it out, and the ad that plays before it starts is a wedding ring ad by Kay jewelers XD

[darkicedragon]

"Monogamy isn't natural!" Said every cheater ever...

[RedNymph]

Thing is, humans have what we call higher brain function. To me, marriage or monogamy is more than just sex--it's friendship. For me, I've known my husband for 7 years, and he is truly my best friend. We talk about everything together. We can have 4 hour conversations at a time. I love him more and more as time goes by. I couldn't find another person who is just as geeky, or into the same things as me, or will take care of me, or make me laugh the way he does. Plus, having multiple partners would take too much effort to please.The animal kingdom spread their genes around, but don't have "friendship" the way humans do. I don't care that some people have multiple partners, that is totally fine. But I don't want people to scoff at monogamy. Some people like it, some don't. Do what you want. But we have it for specific social reasons, and it kind of needs to be there

[kicsnasdc]

Very nice video to upload on Valentine's day lol

[platanochips]

I think monogamy is so common to us humans because of how strongly our emotions affect us. Jealousy is a good example. You only want the person and no one else can have them.

[emmettdel]

Never heard of a more beautiful love story. You go Diplozoon paradoxum! 😭

[kayskreed]

To those who are not monogamous just say so before entering any relationship. Saves everyone a lot of trouble.