BIO220H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Great Reed Warbler, Satin Bowerbird, Mate Choice

• School: UTSG
• Department: Biology
• Course: BIO220H1
• Professor: Locke Rowe

Document Summary

Lecture 3 sexual selection & female choice. Where males do a display and females inspect and choose sometimes there is barely any interaction (esp. between birds) Leks (sage grouse: these are male birds on the prairie, females come in to inspect the males. In the end 1 or 2 males will actually attract all of the females sequentially, for there is high matting success, and strong sexual selection for males. More or less, the males have the same number of females attracted they have natural tail lengths. In the second graph the tail length is changed. Negative impact on number of females attracted when reducing the tail by a third. Positive impact on number of females attracted when increasing the tail by a third. Relatively the same for natural and sham surgery tail length the same: do females choose males based on tail length yes, all that matters is the tail.