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120 results for “female choice”
Spatial behavior and diet data for discrete-choice analyses: data observed and classified from GPS video camera collars worn by female members of the Fortymile Caribou Herd across Alaska, USA, and Yukon, Canada
<p>Competition for resources and space can drive forage selection of large herbivores from the bite through the landscape scale. Animal behavior and foraging patterns are also influenced by abiotic and biotic factors. Fine-scale mechanisms of density-dependent foraging at the bite scale are likely consistent with density-dependent behavioral patterns observed at broader scales, but few studies have directly tested this assertion. Here, we tested if space use intensity, a proxy of spatiotemporal density, affects foraging mechanisms at fine spatial scales similarly to density-dependent effects observed at broader scales in caribou. We specifically assessed how behavioral choices are affected by space use intensity and environmental processes using behavioral state and forage selection data from caribou (<i>Rangifer tarandus granti</i>) observed from GPS video-camera collars using a multivariate discrete-choice modeling framework. We found that the probability of eating shrubs increased with increasing caribou space use intensity and cover of <i>Salix</i> spp. shrubs, whereas the probability of eating lichen decreased. Insects also affected fine-scale foraging behavior by reducing the overall probability of eating. Strong eastward winds mitigated the negative effects of insects and resulted in higher probabilities of eating lichen. Lastly, caribou exhibited foraging functional responses wherein their probability of selecting each food type increased as the availability (% cover) of that food increased. Space use intensity signals of fine-scale foraging were consistent with density-dependent responses observed at larger scales and with recent evidence suggesting declining reproductive rates in the same caribou population. Our results highlight the potential risks of overgrazing on sensitive forage species such as lichen. Remote investigation of the functional responses of foraging behaviors provides exciting future applications where spatial models can identify high-quality habitats for conservation.</p>
Mate choice in the brain: Species differ in how male traits 'turn on' gene expression in female brains
<p>Mate choice plays a fundamental role in speciation, yet we know little about the molecular mechanisms that underpin this crucial decision-making process. Stickleback fish differentially adapted to limnetic and benthic habitats are reproductively isolated and females of each species use different male traits to evaluate prospective partners and reject heterospecific males. Here, we integrate behavioral data from a mate choice experiment with gene expression profiles from the brains of females actively deciding whether to mate. We find substantial gene expression variation between limnetic and benthic females, regardless of behavioral context, suggesting general divergence in constitutive gene expression patterns, corresponding to their genetic differentiation. Intriguingly, female gene co-expression modules covary with male display traits but in opposing directions for sympatric populations of the two species, suggesting male displays elicit a dynamic genomic response that reflects known differences in female preferences. Furthermore, we confirm the role of numerous candidate genes previously implicated in female mate choice in other species, suggesting that evolutionary tinkering with these conserved molecular processes underlies divergent mate preferences and sexual isolation. Taken together, our study adds important new insights to our understanding of the molecular processes underlying female decision-making critical for generating sexual isolation and speciation.</p>
Figure 1 in Does Male Sexual Experience Influence Female Mate Choice and Reproduction in the Melon Fly (Diptera: Tephritidae)?
Figure 1. (A) Number of eggs laid per female per week and (B) proportion of hatched eggs per week for Zeugodacus cucurbitae females mated to virgin or non-virgin (thrice-mated) males. Symbols represent averages (+ 1 SE) over 8 cages per male type.
Female mate choice in an arachnid with exclusive paternal care: males in good condition have higher mating success, but only if they can advertise it
<p><strong>Female mate choice in an arachnid with exclusive paternal care: males in good condition have higher mating success, but only if they can advertise it</strong></p> <p>This repository contains the .csv files used for the statistical analyses of the study "Female mate choice in an arachnid with exclusive paternal care: males in good condition have higher mating success, but only if they can advertise it". In case of questions, please email Laís A. Grossel: <a href="mailto:laisgrossel@gmail.com">laisgrossel@gmail.com</a></p> <p><strong>Data files and structure</strong></p> <p>We have files for verifying the manipulation of males' body condition and a file to assess males' mating success.</p> <p>With the file <strong>morphometry.csv</strong> we determined the body density of all males included in our experiment, using the formula of the ellipsoid: Volume = 4/3 * π * BL/2 * BW/2 * BH/2. In this file, we have the headers:</p> <ul> <li><strong>maleID:</strong> identity of manipulated males</li> <li><strong>visit:</strong> visits to the field, with 7 levels</li> <li><strong>manipulation:</strong> the moment of taking the measures, with 2 levels: before manipulation and after manipulation</li> <li><strong>diet:</strong> diet experimental group, with 2 levels: good and poor</li> <li><strong>body_length:</strong> in mm</li> <li><strong>body_width:</strong> in mm</li> <li><strong>body_height:</strong> in mm</li> <li><strong>body_mass:</strong> to the nearest 0.001 g</li> </ul> <p>With the file <strong>diet_manipulation.csv</strong> we compared the body density of parental males before and after manipulation within each experimental group. In this file, we have the headers:</p> <ul> <li><strong>maleID:</strong> identity of manipulated males</li> <li><strong>diet:</strong> diet experimental group, with 2 levels: good and poor</li> <li><strong>density_before:</strong> body density before manipulation of diet</li> <li><strong>density_after:</strong> body density after manipulation of diet</li> </ul> <p>With the file <strong>density_difference.csv</strong> we compared the body density between males of the two experimental groups after manipulation. In this file, we have the headers:</p> <ul> <li><strong>diet:</strong> diet experimental group, with 2 levels: good and poor</li> <li><strong>body_density:</strong> after manipulation, in g/mm3</li> </ul> <p>With the file <strong>clutches.csv</strong> we analysed the mating success of the males in the experimental groups after manipulation. In this file, we have the headers:</p> <ul> <li><strong>maleID:</strong> identity of manipulated males</li> <li><strong>visit:</strong> visits to the field, with 7 levels</li> <li><strong>diet:</strong> diet experimental group, with 2 levels: good and poor</li> <li><strong>glands:</strong> glands experimental group, with 2 levels: blocked and unblocked</li> <li><strong>exp_group:</strong> experimental group combining the manipulation of diet and glands, with 4 levels: GCBG (good condition and blocked glands), GCUG (good condition and unblocked glands), PCBG (poor condition and blocked glands) and PCUB (poor condition and unblocked glands)</li> <li><strong>clutch:</strong> if the male received eggs from females 15 or 30 days after manipulation, with 2 levels: 0 if the male did not receive eggs and 1 if the male received eggs</li> <li><strong>eggs_number:</strong> number of eggs received from females 15 or 30 days after manipulation</li> </ul>
Data from: Show me you care: female mate choice based on egg attendance rather than male or territorial traits
Female mate choice is often based on male traits, including signals or behaviors, and/or the quality of a male's territory. In species with obligate paternal care, where care directly affects offspring survival, females may also base their mate choices on the quality of a sire's care. Here, we quantified male reproductive success in a natural population of the glassfrog Hyalinobatrachium cappellei, a species with male parental care, to determine the influence of territory quality, male traits, and paternal care behaviors on female mate choice. We found that attending males have a higher chance of gaining new clutches than non-attending males. Our results indicate that females do not select males based only on body condition, calling persistence, or territory traits. Instead, our findings support the hypothesis that females choose males based on care status. Indeed, males already attending a clutch were 70% more likely to obtain another clutch, and the time to acquire an additional clutch was significantly shorter. We also found that males adjust their parental care effort in response to genetic relatedness, by caring only for their own offspring; however, remaining close to unrelated clutches serves as a strategy to attract females and increase chances of successful mating. Thus, males that establish territories that already contain clutches benefit from the signal eggs provide to females.
A trans-African migrant shows repeatable route choice in males and repeatable timing in females
<p>Migrant bird populations often show substantial variation in route choice and timing. Determining whether this population-level variation is driven by between-individual differences and/or flexibility within individuals is key to identifying drivers of migration patterns. 'Repeatability' (R, the proportion of population-level variation attributable to between-individual variation) has become a central metric for the relative consistency of individual behaviour. Individual repeatability in migratory route choice and timing is often reported to vary between seasonal and regional contexts and may also differ between demographic groups (e.g. sexes), but interpreting repeatability requires careful consideration of the underlying changes in between- and within-individual variation. We GPS-tracked repeat migrations for eight male and five female Eleonora's falcons <em>Falco eleonorae</em> and quantified the magnitude of within- and between-individual variation and the individual repeatability of their seasonal routes and timing at 100km intervals all across Africa. We did this across both sexes and then separately for males and females. We found greater between-individual variation in spring routes, albeit with substantial regional fluctuations in both seasons. The greatest between-individual variation in routes occurred during the spring desert-crossing, but this coincided with high within-individual variation, and thus only low repeatability of route choice. Route repeatability instead peaked (R = 0.6–0.8) through the Horn of Africa in spring and during the rainforest-crossing in autumn. Variation and repeatability of timing were stable across regions, with generally higher between-individual variation and repeatability in spring. Sex-specific analyses suggest males exhibit higher route repeatability, while females exhibit stronger seasonal contrasts in timing repeatability. Such sex differences were unexpected, but overall, between-individual variation and repeatability in routes and timings appear greater where environmental and annual cycle constraints are weaker. Route repeatability is especially high where falcons show fidelity to stop-over sites, or individual barrier-crossing preferences. Individual routines may be acquired through early-life exploration-refinement.</p>
Data from: Show me you care: female mate choice based on egg attendance rather than male or territorial traits
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A trans-African migrant shows repeatable route choice in males and repeatable timing in females
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Data from: Long-sperm precedence and other cryptic female choices in Drosophila melanogaster
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Data from: pre-copulatory choices drive post-copulatory decisions: mechanisms of female control shift across different life stages
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Data from: Female chorus frogs delay mate choice under suboptimal environmental conditions
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Data from: Cryptic female choice can maintain reproductive isolation
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Data from: Mate choice in the brain: Species differ in how male traits ‘turn on’ gene expression in female brains
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Sexual selection in wild populations of seed bugs: the role of size in pre-copulatory mate choice by females and males
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Spatial behavior and diet data for discrete-choice analyses: data observed and classified from GPS video camera collars worn by female members of the Fortymile Caribou Herd across Alaska, USA, and Yukon, Canada
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Data from: Chemical signals from eggs facilitate cryptic female choice in humans
<p><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>Mate choice can continue after mating via chemical communication between the female reproductive system and sperm. While there is a growing appreciation that females can bias sperm use and paternity by exerting cryptic female choice for preferred males, we know surprisingly little about the mechanisms underlying these post-mating choices. In particular, whether chemical signals released from eggs (chemoattractants) allow females to exert cryptic female choice to favour sperm from specific males remains an open question, particularly in species (including humans) where adults exercise pre-mating mate choice. Here, we adapt a classic dichotomous mate choice assay to the microscopic scale to assess gamete-mediated mate choice in humans. We examined how sperm respond to follicular fluid, a source of human sperm chemoattractants, from either their partner or a non-partner female when experiencing a simultaneous or non-simultaneous choice between follicular fluids. We report robust evidence under these two distinct experimental conditions that follicular fluid from different females consistently and differentially attracts sperm from specific males. This chemoattractant-moderated choice of sperm offers eggs an avenue to exercise independent mate preference. Indeed, gamete-mediated mate choice did not reinforce pre-mating human mate choice decisions. Our results demonstrate that chemoattractants facilitate gamete-mediated mate choice in humans, which offers females the opportunity to exert cryptic female choice for sperm from specific males. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
On the use of private versus social information in oviposition site choice decisions by Drosophila melanogaster females
<p>Individuals are faced with decisions throughout their lifetimes, and the choices they make often have important consequences towards their fitness. Being able to discern which available option is best to pursue often incurs sampling costs, which may be largely avoided by copying the behaviour and decisions of others. Although social learning and copying behaviours are widespread, much remains unknown about how effective and adaptive copying behaviour is, as well as the factors that underlie its expression. Recently, it has been suggested that since female fruit flies (<i>Drosophila melanogaster</i>) appear to rely heavily on public information when selecting oviposition sites, they are a promising model system for researching patch-choice copying, and more generally, the mechanisms that control decision-making. Here, we set out to determine how well female distinguish between socially-produced cues, and whether females are using 'relevant' signals when choosing an oviposition site. We found that females showed a strong preference for ovipositing on media patches that had been previously occupied by ovipositing females of the same species and diet over other female outgroups. However, in a separate assay, we observed that females favoured ovipositing on media patches that previously housed virgin males over those exhibiting alternative conspecific signals. Our results confirm that females use cues left behind by other flies when choosing between potential oviposition sites, though their prioritization of these signals raises serious questions as to whether fruit flies are employing copying behaviour, or are instead responding to signals that may not be of relevance to oviposition site suitability.</p>
Data from: Female mate choice is a reproductive isolating barrier in Heliconius butterflies
In sexually reproducing organisms, speciation involves the evolution of reproductive isolating mechanisms that decrease gene flow. Premating reproductive isolation, often the result of mate choice, is a major obstacle to gene flow between species because it acts earlier in the life cycle than other isolating barriers. While female choice is often considered the default mode in animal species, research in the butterfly genus Heliconius, a frequent subject of speciation studies, has focused on male mate choice. We studied mate choice by H. cydno females by pairing them with either conspecific males or males of the closely related species H. pachinus. Significantly more intraspecific trials than interspecific trials resulted in mating. Because male courtship rates did not differ between the species when we excluded males that never courted, we attribute this difference to female choice. Females also performed more acceptance behaviours towards conspecific males. Premating isolation between these two species thus entails both male and female mate choice, and female choice may be an important factor in the origin of Heliconius species.
Personality affects female mate choice: frogs displaying more consistent bold behaviors are choosier
<p>Mate choice is an important cause of natural and sexual selection, and drives the evolution and elaboration of male ornaments. Yet mate choice decisions are often neither consistent nor uniform, and a range of factors have been identified to influence variation between and within individuals. A potential source of variation influencing preferences and/or choosiness is animal personality, i.e., repeatable among-individual differences in behaviors. Not only may individuals differ in average personality phenotype, but also vary in how consistently they display said personality. Distinguishing between personality and consistency is important because both aspects are potentially naturally selected traits that may yet influence how sexually selected ornaments are evaluated. Here we use a predator evasion assay to test whether there is variation in boldness among female gray treefrogs (<em>Hyla versicolor</em>), and then examine whether personality traits (spectrum of shy to bold) are correlated with choosiness for longer duration calls. We document substantial and repeatable between-individual variation in boldness, suggesting the presence of animal personality. Results also reveal that the consistency with which females expressed boldness is independent from average personality phenotype and that it is correlated with choosiness: more consistently bold females were choosier. </p>
Mating status affects female choice in Chloridea virescens
<p>Sexual selection in animals has been mostly studied in species in which males are signallers and females are choosers. However, in many species females are (also) signallers. In species with non-signalling females, virgin females are hypothesized to be less choosy than mated females, as virgins must mate to realize fitness and the number of available males is generally limited. Yet, when females signal to attract males, mate limitation can be overcome. We tested how virgin and mated females differ in their calling behaviour, mating latency, and in mate choice, using the tobacco budworm <em>Chloridea</em> (<em>Heliothis</em>) <em>virescens</em> as an example for a species in which females are not only choosers but also signallers. We found that virgin females signalled longer than mated females, but virgin and mated signalling females were equally ready to mate, in contrast to non-signalling females. However, we found that virgin signalling females showed weaker mate preference than mated females, which can be explained by the fact that females increase their fitness with multiple matings. Mated females may thus further increase their fitness by more stringent mate selection. We conclude that signalling is a crucial aspect to consider when studying female mate choice, because signalling may affect the number of available mates to choose from.</p>
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