What is the relationship between competition for mates and natural selection?

What is the relationship between competition for mates and natural selection?

Choosing Mates Often, intense competition for mates within a population places selective pressure on traits related to courtship and copulation. Natural selection that results from these pressures is called sexual selection.

What is a consequence of male competition?

In theory, male–male competition may aid the process of speciation by sexual selection. First, male–male competition can promote variation in male mating traits and favor divergence in both male traits and the corresponding female mating preferences (van Doorn et al. 2004).

What is mate competition biology?

Male-male competition occurs when two males of the same species compete for the opportunity to mate with a female. Sexually dimorphic traits, size, sex ratio, and the social situation may all play a role in the effects male-male competition has on the reproductive success of a male and the mate choice of a female.

Does competition increase speciation?

Competition for mates may also facilitate divergence and speciation, most often through interactions with natural selection and/or mate choice.

What is an example of male competition?

Examples of male-male competition include the dramatic head butting by male bighorn sheep and fights between roost- ers. Male elk use elaborate antlers to lock and push one another during the mating season, vying for access to females.

Why do males compete for mates?

The reproductive success of individual males increases with the number of mates. Thus, males often achieve greater reproductive success by competing with other males to access as many females as possible. Females invest more in each individual offspring and thus cannot produce as many offspring as males.

Does mating lead to interspecific competition?

Interspecific competition is common (Peiman and Robinson 2010), and interspecific reproductive competition can occur when species compete for shared territorial and/or signaling space involved in mate attraction and reproduction (Grether et al.