Debating Sexual Selection and Mating Strategies
Published at full length with the title 'Reproductive behaviour: sexual selection remains the best explanation' in Science E-letters, 6 April 2006
Color Signals in the Black Grouse (Tetrao tetrix): Signal Properties and Their Condition Dependency
Recent progress in techniques of quantifying between-individual differences of color-based ornaments has revealed undiscovered possibilities for research in sexual selection. We present how the color spectra data can be comprehensively used for studying the importance of sexual ornaments in the black grouse and how these ornaments are related to a male condition. For this, we used both correlative field and experimental data. Field data indicated that older males had more chromatic coloration than yearlings. Blue chroma of males was correlated with male mating success. We experimentally manipulated yearling birds with testosterone implants and found that testosterone-implanted males had imp…