A few studies that have tested whether fidelity (rate of extra-pair paternity) of individual females is repeatable across different mating situations (i.e. with different social partners), but they did not find significant differences between females [9], [10].
Our set-up of videotaping competitive mating situations and subsequent automated video analysis of individual behaviours shows how to meet this methodological challenge and successfully disentangle the body size effects on male male competition and female choice.
Most analyses of sexual conflict over female mating explore situations when mating is costly to females.
Firstly, for all values of χ, Fst and W remained higher in the presence of bidirectional CI except for extreme sib-mating situations where they converged.
By contrast, male mice are significantly more likely to mate in situations simulating extra-territorial copulations, where future risk of competition is high but so too are potential reproductive rewards.
Disentangling the effects of body size and its plasticity on simultaneously operating male male competition and female choice, and their relative contribution to mating success in competitive situations, respectively, is a methodological challenge and almost impossible with direct visual observation.
Other calls are associated with aggressive situations, courtship, and mating.
If women had a history of choosing younger "toy boy" mates, the situation would be reversed, with men losing their fertility in their 50s, Dr Singh argues.
Strauss added that his side were "very disappointed" by what Boycott said and that the squad sympathised with their team-mate's situation.
Consistent with this finding, diploid males had a lower mating success than haploid males in situations in which diploid and haploid males competed for females and females had the opportunity to choose their own mate.
