Paternal behavior

Broader Terms

behavior patterns associated with or characteristic of a father.

It can safely be concluded that paternal behavior is unusual in mammals, but not unusual in those mammals that are monogamous or form pair bonds (even if the bond is temporary while the newborn are developing).
These findings sug- gest that AVP may be important in paternal behavior because of increased production and release at a time when paternal behavior is initiated, although aggression also increases at this time.
Where systematic studies have been conducted, the most salient feature of rodent paternal behavior is its lability.
The relationship between androgens and paternal behavior is not straightforward, potentially because of the diversity of tasks a male must undertake to maximize reproductive success, notably alternating between courtship, aggression, and offspring care.
Either hormonal facilitation of paternal behavior is a hyper-variable trait that has evolved differently in different species, or, more probably, peripheral hormone concentrations are inadequate to explain the role of sex steroid hormones in paternal behavior.

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