Sexual selection in gallus: Effects of morphology and dominance on female spatial behavior

Abstract

Sexual selection has received a great deal of attention from field and laboratory researchers for over a century, but hard evidence of female choice of mates in mixed-sex groups remains scarce. Dominant males typically mate much more often than subordinants but evidence that females “choose” such males is elusive. In Gallus , which includes junglefowl and their domestic fowl descendants, females stay near and mate with dominant, territorial males. We demonstrate here that Gallus females in mixed-sex flocks who have no information about the social dominance status of males orient to, approach and stay near males with larger than average combs whereas females which do not have information about male dominance orient toward and stay near high ranking males. We verify that comb size correlates with male social rank. Hence, Gallus females do actively respond to “high quality” males; they apparently identify such males by male physical characteristics and, if available, information concerning male-male interactions.