Question

Compare and contrast monogamy, polygyny, and polyandry. Define these mating systems and provide a species example for each system. In your answer, discuss how these mating systems affect how animals choose mating partners and note how these systems affect parenting behavior?

Answer 1

Features	Monogamy	Polygyny	Polyandry
Definition	Marital practice where a person has one spouse at a time	A marital practice where a man can have more than one wife simultaneously	A marital practice where a woman can have more than one husbands simultaneously
Occurrence	Very common	Common than polyandry	Very rare than the other two
Spouses	A husband has one wife and vice versa	A husband has more than one wives	A woman has more than one husbands

Examples

Humans generally follow monogamy

The lions follow polygyny and has many lionesses

Honey bees mate with many drone bees. A Queen bee has multiple drone bee partners

The species in monogamy choose their mating partners depending on their compatibility with each other. The polygyny and polyandry serves no specific mating systems and can randomly mate with any reproductively active individuals.
The monogamous relationships have a better parenting behaviour than the other two because there is cooperative behaviours of the parents for the child. On the other hand, the polyandry and polygyny parental behaviours are not for lifetime but upto the age where the offsprings become reproductively active and can live on it's own.