Publications by authors named "M D Jennions"
Inbreeding impairs the cognitive abilities of humans, but its impact on cognition in other animals is poorly studied. For example, environmental stress (e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMales often strategically adjust the number of available sperm based on the social context (i.e. sperm priming response), but it remains unclear how environmental and genetic factors shape this adjustment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWhen males compete, sexual selection favors reproductive traits that increase their mating or fertilization success (pre- and postcopulatory sexual selection). It is assumed that males face a trade-off between these 2 types of sexual traits because they both draw from the same pool of resources. Consequently, allocation into mate acquisition or ejaculation should create similar trade-offs with other key life history traits.
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- - Male competition for females and resources plays a key role in reproductive success, with larger males and those with better weapons typically winning fights.
- - A "winner-loser effect" has been observed where previous victors are more likely to win future contests, while losers suffer repeated defeats, though its influence on behaviors like mating is less studied.
- - In experiments with male mosquitofish, those who won fights were more likely to take risks and successfully reach females when faced with a larger rival, indicating that winning impacts their behavior for up to a week post-contest.
The Darwin-Bateman paradigm predicts that females enhance their fitness by being choosy and mating with high-quality males, while males should compete to mate with as many females as possible. In many species, males enhance their fitness by defending females and/or resources used by females. That is, males directly defend access to mating opportunities.
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