| 17 November 2024 |
 I did get over to Reifel once last week and watched a small group of hooded mergansers in an elaborate courtship ritual. It went on for as long as I watched it, about 30 minutes. There were three males and one female. This picture is very typical for the female. She hovered at the perimeter of the proceedings, seemingly detached. The three males were not fighting, they were competing (sexual selection) by display. They uttered these very strange growls and then they'd jerk their heads back as shown here and on the index page. Sexual selection operates by many different strategies, but in the case of hooded mergansers it appears that the female chooses a mate based on the merit of his display. Sexual selection is still not completely understood. For example, in the competition above, it is not obvious how a better display by one male would necessarily mean that he was "fitter," that he had better genes. Of course there is a theory that beauty operates as a proxy for health, and healthiness would definitely have an evolutionary advantage. But it is also possible that the preference for beauty is simply inherited and has nothing to do with fitness (natural selection). |
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