Unstandardized breeding choice grouped by maternal litter

Banded mongooses play a delicate balancing act between incest and warfare. Some females have to choose between mating with a relative within their own social group or trying to sneakily mate with a male from a rival group during fights between groups. We show that females are more likely to mate with extra-group males when the risk of inbreeding within their group is high, but not all females get this opportunity for extra-group mating.缟獴（Banded mongoose）在近亲交配（incest）与群体冲突之间维持着精妙的平衡。部分雌性个体需在两种交配策略间做出抉择：要么与本社会群体内的亲属进行交配，要么在群体间冲突期间暗中与敌对群体的雄性交配。本研究表明，当本群体内的近亲繁殖（inbreeding）风险较高时，雌性更倾向于与群体外雄性交配，但并非所有雌性个体都能获得此类群体外交配（extra-group mating）的机会。