Why Do Animals Avoid Inbreeding?
Why Do Animals Avoid Inbreeding? Inbreeding avoidance mechanisms have evolved in response to selection against inbred offspring. Inbreeding avoidance occurs in nature by at least four mechanisms: kin recognition, dispersal, extra-pair/extra-group copulations, and delayed maturation/reproductive suppression. Do any animals avoid inbreeding? A new meta-analysis in Nature Ecology & Evolution has found that on the whole,