Species interactions and plasticity in female mate assessment (Old ID 25016)

Animal Behavior Society
Role

Supervisor

Description

This project will investigate the effect of species interactions on female mate preference through presence/absence of a heterospecific. The questions I am interested in is "do females plastically change their mate preferences when heterospecifics are present?" To do this, I will be conducting two-choice mate trials in allopatric-c context situations (2 conspecifics only) and in sympatric-context situations (2 conspecific males plus 1 heterospecific). No previous mate preference study has put a heterospecific into the mating arena with the conspecifics. This project is the first to look at mate preference in the presence of a heterospecific.

Date

08 May 2018 - 07 May 2019

Project Type

GRANT

Keywords

Species Interactions;Preference;Plasticity;Sexual Selection;Competition;reproductive interference

Funding Body

Animal Behavior Society

Amount

2665.9

Project Team

Megan Higgie