This week saw the publication of the first part of my fellowship project, in which I used meta-analysis to quantify the extent of context-dependent mating behaviour across the animal kingdom. I found that animals are significantly choosier during mate choice in favourable environments (with low predation rates, and a high mate density). However, both investment in animal sexual signalling behaviour, and the response to the sexual signals of others, were not dependent on the environment. Overall, this suggests that the evidence for context-dependent mating behaviour in the published literature is actually surprisingly weak. I discuss reasons why I think this is the case- but any opinions are welcome!
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February 2024
AuthorLiam Dougherty. Categories |