In rounds two and three of the mating trials, previously successful males that failed to mate, and previously unsuccessful males that obtained a mating, were discarded such that only repeatedly successful (stud) or repeatedly unsuccessful (dud) males were retained.
The latter were excluded from comparative analysis; hence only males from the WG group that obtained a mating with a worthless gift were included in comparative analysis across treatment groups.
Reproduction may affect molting, because (1) low-quality birds are likely to obtain a mate and breed later in the season (e.g. [15] [18]) and/or (2) a resource-based trade-off may operate between reproduction and molt [19] [21].
Because cognitive abilities are important to facilitate behaviors such as finding food, avoiding predation, and obtaining a mate, individuals with increased cognitive abilities are likely to have higher reproductive success in the wild [ 14].
Furthermore, the energetic costs associated with sperm production (Olsson et al. 1997) are expected to trade off with other aspects of reproduction such as obtaining a mate or investing in future reproductive events (Liljedal et al. 1999; Fitzpatrick et al. 2012; Parker et al. 2013).
By turning around the roulette wheel n times (n being the population size) and selecting, each time, the string selected by the roulette wheel, we obtain a mating pool of size n.
Diploid males in C. glomerata were larger in size than haploid males, initiated courtship display sooner and tended to require less time to obtain a mating.
Fisher's (1930) insight was that the rarer sex obtains a mating advantage, and so mothers should over-produce this sex, all other things being equal.
If, however, low female responsiveness raises the threshold level of attractiveness required for a male to obtain a mating [ 6], then low female responsiveness will be associated with strong sexual selection.
