BIO220H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Mate Choice, Sperm Competition, Sexual Selection
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BIO220H1 Full Course Notes
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The birds: the males have ornaments and long tails, dramatic differences between the males, driven by the variation between the females and the males in the system, the females are dry / drab. Conspicuous behavior: inflation of sacs to create a display for the females the females choose their mate: a few males will get the most females to mate with as very few males are capable of the inflation. Exaggerated on the males for male to male competition, and less exaggerated for the female. Females prefer the males with the longer eye stock = males compete with each other and compare eye stock length to each other. The females having a preference is called mate choice: the long giant tail of the peacocks is energetically costly, makes no sense in terms of natural selection. There is a cost to the tail, but there must be a counter benefit.
