Trade-Offs in Male Display Activity with Lek Size

Abstract

In lek mating systems, males aggregate and defend arenas where they display for females; females select and mate with a male and then solely raise their offspring. Generally, female visits and copulations increase and reproductive variance in male mating success declines with lek size. Here we investigate how male display effort changes across a gradient in lek size. We expect male display effort, an energetically expensive activity, will increase with lek size and male rank due to changes in breeding opportunities and competition among males. We test the interaction of male rank and lek size on display effort using the white-bearded manakin, Manacus manacus (Aves: Pipridae), a well-studied species with a wide geographic distribution in the new world tropics. We used mini-video recorders to simultaneously capture female visits and display behaviors of 41 males distributed over 10 leks. We found that overall display effort increased disproportionately with lek size due to males of both high and low ranks increasing their display effort at larger leks. Our results suggest that increased breeding opportunities and intrasexual competition at larger leks result in males of different ranks investing similarly in increased display effort in order to attract females.

Comparison between lek counts and bioacoustic recording for monitoring Western Capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus L.)

“…The primary objective of this study was to determine whether bioacoustics could be used to assess lek activity levels, and could be related to the numbers of displaying males present. It is established for some species that call rate can be used as a proxy for population abundance (Laiolo et al 2011;Oppel et al 2014;Knight et al 2017), and that vocal display effort can increase in line with lek size or visitation rates to the lek (Westcott 1992;Pizo and Aleixo 1998;Cestari et al 2016).…”

A first test of unattended, acoustic recorders for monitoring CapercaillieTetrao urogalluslekking activity

“…shown that recorded calling rates are positively relate to lek size in white-bearded manakin Manacus manacus (Cestari et al 2016) and white-bellied emerald Amaziliu candida (Atwood et al 1991); and to nest density at Cory's shearwater Calonectris borealis breeding sites (Oppel et al 2014). These findings indicate that acoustic monitoring may be useful to document relative changes in local bird populations over time.…”

Combining Enzymatic Antioxidant Overexpression and Short-term Low Oxygen Conditioning Hormesis to Improve Performance of Gamma-irradiated Anastrepha Suspensa Males

“…However, differences in optimal lek size between low-ranking and high-ranking males can limit mating success and the bene ts of these aggregations. That is, attractive males obtain sexual advantages only in small leks, while unattractive males gain substantially in large leks 44,45 .…”