Abstract
The purpose of this study was to use paired choice tests to examine mate selection by female domestic chickens, Gallus gallus domesticus. We examined five behavioural and six morphological traits of 34 pairs of males to determine which male features influenced female mate choice. The frequency of a behavioural display known as wingflapping was the only variable that differed significantly between males that were chosen and males that were not. Within trials, females selected males with the highest wingflapping rate. Across trials, the wingflapping rate of chosen males ranged widely (3-82 wingflaps/h) suggesting that females used a relative choice mechanism when selecting a mate. These results differ from traits earlier work on the closely related red junglefowl, G. g. murghi, in which females use morphological and a threshold choice mechanism when selecting mates.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1099-1105 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Journal | Animal Behaviour |
| Volume | 56 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Nov 1998 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We thank Drs Andy Horn and Hal Whitehead for reading the manuscript and making many helpful suggestions. We also thank Drs Fred Dyer and Marlene Zuk for their criticisms of the manuscript and Dr Wayne Fairfull for his discussions on the effect of artificial selection on mating behaviour in domestic fowl. We are grateful to the CFAR poultry unit for their assistance with the care of the birds and Michael Clinchy, Anne Marie Honkanen and Saskia Koning for help with data collection and transcription. This study was funded in part by Shaver Poultry Breeding Farms Limited.
ASJC Scopus Subject Areas
- Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
- Animal Science and Zoology
PubMed: MeSH publication types
- Journal Article