User:Jjm2121/Infanticide (zoology)

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Bottlenose dolphins have been reported to kill their young through impact injuries. Dominant male langurs tend to kill the existing young upon taking control of a harem. There have been sightings of infanticide in the leopard population. The males of the Stegodyphus lineatus species of spider have been known to exhibit infanticide as a way to encourage females to mate again.

In mammals, male infanticide is most often observed in non-seasonal breeders. There is less fitness advantage for a conspecific to carry out infanticide if the interbirth period of the mother will not be decreased and the female will not return to estrous. In Felidae, birthing periods can happen anytime during the year, as long as there is not an unweaned offspring of that female. This is a contributor to the frequency of infanticide in carnivorous felids. Some species of seasonal breeders have been observed to commit infanticide. Cases in the snub-nosed monkey, a seasonal breeding primate, have shown that infanticide does lessen the interbirth period of the females and can allow them to breed with the next breeding group. Other cases of seasonal breeding species where the infanticidal characteristic is observed has been explained as a way of preserving the mother's resources and energy in turn increasing the reproductive success of upcoming breeding periods.

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Burying Beetles also commit infanticide as a way to decrease competition and increase their consumption of carcasses.