Does Familiarity Affect Mate Selection Among Peacocks?
Connie Juhn Abstract: Observations show that in the vicinity of females, male peacocks engage in ritualistic courtship which includes spreading of their trains and “hoot-dashing”. It has been demonstrated that those males with the most elaborate trains, and the most eye-spots, are the most successful in mating (Petrie et al. 1991). However, research has not yet suggested the costs or benefits of a female is familiarity with a male: if a female has already copulated with a male, is her mate selection process biased towards or against that male the next time they meet? My proposal is to further analyze this question by collecting data on male recognition, courtship time up to the point of copulation, and the number of repeated copulations (same mating pair). Then, I will demonstrate how this information can be used to hypothesize about the effects of familiarity on mate selection and how this may affect the evolution of peacock trains. Mobbing Behavior and Hamilton s Rule Charlotte Lapsa
