Behavioral Ecology Blog

So I obviously have to cover this story- as it comes from a friend and labmate- Lauryn Benedict.  A Nature News piece just covered the results (published: Benedict, L. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. doi: 10.1007/s00265-007-0524-x (2007). ) of a part of her thesis.  Anyway, here is a part of the story!

Birds that sing in harmonious duets [...]

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Just in case you have always wondered, “old” is not an insult in the bird world… Actually, multiple studies have not shown that old birds have a competitive advantage over younger birds when it comes to extrapair access to fertile females. The latest (and one of the best in my opinion) is a a study [...]

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The question of whether females derive benefit from multiple matings has long troubled behavioral ecologists… There are 2 logical answers each having at least partial support, but a recent paper In the Journal of The European Society For Evol. Biol. By Jennions et. al. (“Do Female black field crickets Teleogryllus commodus benefit from polyandry?”) shows [...]

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As of yesterday, field-blogging has begun. For those of you interested… some details. My field site is just outside Palm Desert, Riverside County, California. Specifically, I work at The Boyd Deep Canyon Desert Research Center. It is a fantastic place- 14k acres of pristine desert land. The station is modern- almost hotel like. [...]

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Did you know that rats have an innate aversion to cat urine?? Well, I certainly did not. Seems reasonable though, that this represents an adaptation- i.e. where there is cat urine- there are cats- rats are in danger of being eaten by cats…. Something that might block this aversion in rats might [...]

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…include siring more offspring- so long as you are a firefly..
MALE COURTSHIP ATTRACTIVENESS AND PATERNITY SUCCESS IN FIREFLIES
So this is a way cool study in fire flies.. Briefly, the researchers do an experiment to determine if mating success correlates with reproductive success (actual parentage) They allow females to choose and mate with their preferred [...]

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THE EVOLUTION OF MULTIPLE MATING IN ARMY ANTS
Abstract:
The evolution of mating systems in eusocial Hymenoptera is constrained because females mate only during a brief period early in life, whereas inseminated queens and their stored sperm may live for decades. Considerable research effort during recent years has firmly established that obligate multiple mating has evolved only [...]

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For the first time, sociologists have mapped the romantic and sexual relationships of an entire high school over 18 months, providing evidence that humans frequently have mating strategies that are not charcterized by exclusivity.

Slightly more than half of all students reported having sexual intercourse, a [...]

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