What is the function of a lek?
What is the function of a lek?
A lek is an aggregation of male animals gathered to engage in competitive displays and courtship rituals, known as lekking, to entice visiting females which are surveying prospective partners with which to mate.
What is a lek in biology?
lek, in animal behaviour, communal area in which two or more males of a species perform courtship displays. Lek behaviour, also called arena behaviour, is found in a number of insects, birds, and mammals. Varying degrees of interaction occur between the males, from virtually none to closely cooperative dancing.
How does a lek breeding system work?
A lek breeding system is employed by some polygynous species and is characterised by aggregations of males that females visit primarily for breeding purposes. This results in strong sexual selection pressures on the lek, as males compete for females and females ‘choose’ between males.
What is the adaptive significance of the lek to the females?
Leks are male aggregations that females visit to assess potential mates and copulate, without receiving any critical resources from males other than gametes (Bradbury 1981).
What is a hotspot lek?
A lek is a cluster of males on display territories. The ‘hotspot’ hypothesis suggests that population level patterns of female movement and/ or dispersion determine male settlement patterns. Males, it is argued, should settle where females are most likely to be encountered or where female densities are greatest.
What is a sage grouse lek?
A lek is the name of an area where sage-grouse congregate in the spring. The males choose an area where their courtship display can be easily seen by females. That’s why leks are usually found where there is less vegetation. These areas may be sparsely vegetated naturally, or due to activity by animals or humans.
How might the lek paradox be explained?
The lek paradox is the conundrum of how additive or beneficial genetic variation is maintained in lek mating species, in the face of consistent female preferences, sexual selection. Stronger selection should lead to impaired survival, as it decreases genetic variance and ensures that more offspring have similar traits.
What is a sage-grouse lek?
What is the origin hypothesis of a hot spot?
The origins of the concept of hotspots lie in the work of J. Tuzo Wilson, who postulated in 1963 that the Hawaiian Islands result from the slow movement of a tectonic plate across a hot region beneath the surface.
Where can I find sage-grouse lek?
Gunnison Sage-grouse predictably use the Waunita Lek, located 19 miles east of Gunnison just north of Hwy 50. Turn north on County Road 887 (Waunita Hot Springs Road) and go 0.6 miles to a small pull-off on the right where you can view the birds.
What is paradox variation?
Abstract. Neutral theory predicts that genetic diversity increases with population size, yet observed levels of diversity across metazoans vary only two orders of magnitude while population sizes vary over several. This unexpectedly narrow range of diversity is known as Lewontin’s Paradox of Variation (1974).
What is the basis of the lek paradox?
The basis of the lek paradox is continuous genetic variation in spite of strong female preference for certain traits. There are two conditions in which the lek paradox arises. The first is that males contribute only genes and the second is that female preference does not affect fecundity.
Which is the best definition of a paradox?
Logical paradoxes are statements that actually do contradict themselves, and are therefore unresolvable. The word paradox comes from the Greek “paradoxos,” meaning contrary to expectation, or strange.
Where does the word Lek come from in English?
Many attempts have been made to explain it away, but the paradox remains. The term derives from the Swedish lek, a noun which typically denotes pleasurable and less rule-bound games and activities (“play”, as by children). English use of lek dates to the 1860s.
How does the Hamilton and Zuk model address the lek paradox?
The Hamilton and Zuk model addresses the lek paradox, arguing that the cycles of co-adaptation between host and parasite resist a stable equilibrium point. Hosts continue to evolve resistance to parasites and parasites continue to bypass resistant mechanisms, continuously generating genetic variation.
