The energetic cost of display in male sage grouse

Vehrencamp, Sandra L.; Bradbury, Jack W.; Gibson, Robert B.

doi:10.1016/s0003-3472(89)80120-4

Cited by 294 publications

(203 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…There is no consensus that energy expenditure is a cost evaluated by females, because high metabolic rate is found to be related to reproductive success in some species [38,39] but not in others [40]. However, conventional techniques to measure metabolic rate, such as body weight changes and doubly labelled water, lack fine temporal resolution [41,42].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Female choice for male motor skills

et al. 2011

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Sexual selection was proposed by Darwin to explain the evolution of male sexual traits such as ornaments and elaborate courtship displays. Empirical and theoretical studies have traditionally focused on ornaments; the reasons for the evolution of elaborate, acrobatic courtship displays remain unclear. We addressed the hypothesis that females choose males on the basis of subtle differences in display performance, indicating motor skills that facilitate survival. Male golden-collared manakins (Manacus vitellinus) perform elaborate, acrobatic courtship displays. We used high-speed cameras to record the displays of wild males and analysed them in relation to male reproductive success. Females preferred males that performed specific display moves at greater speed, with differences of tens of milliseconds strongly impacting female preference. In additional males, we recorded telemetrically the heart rate during courtship using miniature transmitters and found that courtship is associated with profoundly elevated heart rates, revealing a large metabolic investment. Our study provides evidence that females choose their mates on the basis of subtle differences in motor performance during courtship. We propose that elaborate, acrobatic courtship dances evolve because they reflect motor skills and cardiovascular function of males.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Female choice for male motor skills

et al. 2011

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“…Other examples of traits indicative of vigor that females might use to evaluate males include the leaping and the climbing and diving displays of snipe, genus Capella (Sutton 1981), the diving and shuttle displays of several species of hummingbirds (Stiles 1982), the leaping displays of blueblack grassquits, Volatinia jacarina (Costa and Macedo, 2005;Aguilar et al, 2008), wing-clapping displays of flappet larks, Mirafra rufocinnamomea (Norberg 1991), the chasing behavior of house flies Fannia canicularis (Land & Collett 1974), the leg-waving displays of many wolf spiders (Hebets & Uetz 1999) and the energetically expensive waving of the enlarged cheliped in fiddler crabs, genus Uca (Salmon et al, 1978;Matsumasa and Murai, 2005). Additional examples include the lengthy bouts of flying in some male bird displays (Mather & Robertson 1992), the sustained, energetically expensive vocalizations of many anuran amphibians (Prestwich, 1994;Welch et al, 1998) and of some ungulates (Wyman et al 2008), sustained stridulation in some orthoptera (Hedrick, 1986;Prestwich, 1994;Prestwich and O'Sullivan, 2005), sustained flashing displays of fireflies (Lewis & Cratsley 2008) and persistence on leks by displaying males (Leuthold, 1966;Vehrencamp et al, 1989;Deutsch, 1994;Isvaran and Jhala, 2000). Indeed, one of the most striking aspects of many male mating displays is their repetitive nature.…”

Section: Motor Performance As Vigormentioning

confidence: 99%

Female mate choice based upon male motor performance

2010

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“…In addition, we investigate the potential role of vocal display rates as a correlate of male mating success and as an indicator of male heterozygosity. Sustained display rate can be energetically challenging ( Vehrencamp et al 1989;Hö glund et al 1992;Hunt et al 2004) and it is a typical correlate of mating success among lekking males ( Fiske et al 1998), making this behavioural trait a good candidate as an honest signal of male quality that can be readily assessed by females. We thus tested the hypothesis that males within a given lek presenting more vigorous vocal displays are more likely to sire young, and that vocalization rate is correlated with male heterozygosity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Female mate choice across spatial scales: influence of lek and male attributes on mating success of blue-crowned manakins

et al. 2009

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Lekking males compete for females within and among leks, yet female choice is expected to work differently at each of these spatial scales. We used paternity analyses to examine how lek versus male attributes influence mate choice in the blue-crowned manakin Lepidothrix coronata. We tested the hypotheses that females prefer (i) to mate at larger leks where a larger number of potential mates can be assessed, (ii) to mate with unrelated or highly heterozygous males expected to produce high-quality offspring, (iii) to mate with males that display at higher rates, and that (iv) display honestly reflects male genetic quality. Our results show that (i) males at larger leks are not more likely to sire young, although females nesting close to small leks travel further to reach larger leks, (ii) siring males are not less related to females or more heterozygous than expected, (iii) within a lek, high-display males are more likely to sire young, and (iv) both male heterozygosity and display rate increased with lek size, and as a result display does not reliably reflect male genetic quality across leks. We suggest that female mate choice in this species is probably driven by a Fisherian process rather than adaptive genetic benefits.

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The energetic cost of display in male sage grouse

Cited by 294 publications

References 30 publications

Female choice for male motor skills

Female choice for male motor skills

Female mate choice based upon male motor performance

Female mate choice across spatial scales: influence of lek and male attributes on mating success of blue-crowned manakins

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