The Evolution of Flexible Mating Strategies

Informations

Funding country

Netherlands

Acronym

-

URL

-

Start date

6/15/2006

End date

10/31/2009

Budget

194,697 EUR

Fundings

Organisations

Abstract

Abstract Sexual selection is a powerful idea in biology that has helped us to understand how elaborate mating displays can evolve in males despite being costly for their survival. Typically, males with the most elaborate displays are assumed to have the highest mating success, and females mating with these attractive males benefit either directly or via traits passed on to their offspring. One notable failing of current theory, however, is that it does not account for the considerable variation that exists between individuals in their sexual behaviour. Why do males differ in their courtship displays? Why do different females have different preferences? We propose that the answer to this problem lies in variation in market value ? that is, variation in attractiveness to the opposite sex. Rather than being the same for all individuals, the costs and benefits of a given mating tactic are likely to depend strongly on current condition and attractiveness, and individuals should therefore adjust their behaviour accordingly. Furthermore, since attractiveness has multiple dimensions, these costs and benefits will also determine how they should allocate resources to different components of their display. We will combine mathematical modelling with laboratory experiments on zebra finches and humans to investigate such flexibility in mating strategies, considering both functional and mechanistic questions. First, from a functional viewpoint, how should individuals adaptively adjust their mating behaviour in relation to their current market value? How should they adjust their choosiness, their courtship displays and their parental effort in a way that maximises their fitness? How should they apportion resources between fixed, morphological traits and flexible, behavioural displays? Second, turning to questions of mechanism, how do individuals acquire and respond to information about their own market value? Social interactions with others are a rich source of feedback, but how do they learn from this information and use it to their advantage? Current theory is poorly equipped to answer these questions. We advocate a move away from the traditional view of sexual behaviour as a rigid, pre-programmed suite of traits towards a more dynamic, state-dependent perspective in which individuals learn about their own market value and use this information to adjust their mating tactics flexibly.