Abstract
Several empirical studies have reported a positive relation between male viability and the expression of sexually selected traits, but others have reported a significant negative relation. Using the ability to evade predators as an indicator of male viability, we evaluated the direction of this relationship in a free-ranging population of common pheasants, Phasianus colchicus , which have multiple ornaments and are sexually dimorphic in tail length and in ornaments such as wattles and tarsal spurs. We translocated 72 males into a protected area and radiotracked them during the breeding seasons of 3 years. Before releasing them, we measured their body weight, wing and tail length, wattle height and spur length. Male survivors had larger multiple ornaments, regardless of age, than males that were killed by predators but survival selection on wing length and body weight was nonsignificant, showing that selection on male ornaments was not the result of selection on correlated traits. Copyright 2003 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Published Version
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