Assortative Mating in Fallow Deer Reduces the Strength of Sexual Selection

Mary E. Farrell; Elodie F. Briefer; Alan G. McElligott

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0018533

Assortative Mating in Fallow Deer Reduces the Strength of Sexual Selection

Mary E. Farrell, Elodie F. Briefer, Alan G. McElligott

Department of Animal and Agriculture

Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal Article › peer-review

24 Citations (Scopus)

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Abstract

Assortative mating can help explain how genetic variation for male quality is maintained even in highly polygynous species. Here, we present a longitudinal study examining how female and male ages, as well as male social dominance, affect assortative mating in fallow deer (Dama dama) over 10 years. Assortative mating could help explain the substantial proportion of females that do not mate with prime-aged, high ranking males, despite very high mating skew. We investigated the temporal pattern of female and male matings, and the relationship between female age and the age and dominance of their mates.

Original language	English
Journal	PLoS One
Volume	6
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0018533
Publication status	Published - 6 Apr 2011

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Assortative Mating in Fallow Deer Reduces the Strength of Sexual SelectionFinal published version, 319 KBLicence: CC BY-NC-SA

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Assortative Mating in Fallow Deer Reduces the Strength of Sexual Selection

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