Microsatellite DNA analysis shows that greater sage grouse leks are not kin groups.

The spectacular social courtship displays of lekking birds are thought to evolve via sexual selection, but this view does not easily explain the participation of many males that apparently fail to mate. One of several proposed solutions to this 'lek skew paradox' is that kin selection favours low-ranking males joining leks to increase the fitness of closely related breeders. We investigated the potential for kin selection to operate in leks of the greater sage grouse, Centrocercus urophasianus, by estimating relatedness between lekking males using microsatellite DNA markers.

Active formation of mixed-species grouse leks: a role for predation in lek evolution?

Behavioural ecologists have interpreted avian leks as products of sexual selection, in which males display socially to increase their opportunities to mate. However, without invoking reproductive queuing or kin selection, this paradigm does not necessarily explain why many males that fail to mate participate in leks. An alternative solution, that males also aggregate to reduce predation, has previously lacked compelling support.