Mating Fight
2017-06-10
Survival and reproduction are the two most important instincts of animals. When the small animals slowly grow up, after sexual maturity, the instinct to drive them to find the opposite sex, through various means to attract the opposite sex to win the favor of the opposite sex, to achieve the purpose of mating and breeding offspring. It can be said that animals come to the nature for these two purposes. Animals try their best to reproduce for future generations, and these breeding strategies are strengthened in the evolutionary process and inherited from generation to generation.
An important way of evolution
------the choice of sex
In addition to the natural selection of animals in the evolution of the process, there is a very important way to choose, that is, sexual choice. Simply put, the success of attracting the opposite sex of the form, behavior, strategy will be strengthened in future generations, and have the opportunity to inherit. The result of sexual selection leads to differences in body structure, physiology and behavior of both sexes.
Among the common peacocks, male peacock feathers are very beautiful, part of the feathers the blue, green metallic luster; tail feathers are about 3 meters long, and at the end there are same concentric colorful patterns; compared to male peacock, the female appearance is bleak. However, the female peacock has the right to choose male peacock, so the more beautiful the male opens its feather and the more complex it dances, the more opportunities it will have to get the female peacock's favor and through the mating process breeding offspring, the genes are spread to the next generation. This is the charm and motivation of sexual choice.
Intersex selection: male peacock rely on the relative "gentle" form and behavior differences to obtain heterosexual good, and this way of mating to breed offspring is known as sexual choice. Sexual choice is mainly through the display and showing off between the male and female to make choices, which lead to wonderful changes on form and behavour among the sex selected individuals.
Intrasex selection: in the animal world there is another way to choose, the choice within the same sex, which refers to the way the same sex by showing physical strength and even fighting to win the spouse. The fight of male crickets, the giant panda competing for spouses of war, elephants, giraffes, and papas won the feminine competition, are typical examples. This choice is the direct competition among individuals, and the winner gets the spouse. Under this pressure, the male winner has to become stronger, and their fighting organ has been strengthened.
Generally, birds use "intersex selection" strategy, and mammals use "intrasex selection" strategystrengthened.
Various ways of attracting and contending mates
Attracting and contending mates are the prelude to animal mating. The reason why these phenomenon exist, and even producing a very complex attracting behavior and intense competition, from the economic point of view, is due to the male and female gender differences on the decision of the input inequality. The male can produce thousands of sperm cells, and the female produces less egg cells, so the female has fewer chances, hence being very careful in the choosing of spouse.
So, how does the female know if the other party has fulfilled his request? The best way is to let the male fully express themselves, the longer the performance, the more help to expose some weaknesses, so that the female are able to make the right choice.
Gift from Bowerbirds
Bowerbirds are distributed in Australia and New Guinea. There are 8 genera and 20 species, light color, different colors among the male and female. In the bowerbird community where the female are far more than the male, in order to win the mate, during the courtship, the male will entertain the female, with branches who built arches or pavilions, built courtship pavilion. After the construction, the male will use their mouth to pick up a variety of colorful small items, such as beautiful feathers, stones, plant fruits, snail shells, berries and even cap to decorate pavilion, as a "gift" to give to the female, in order to win the females favorite. The more gifts, the more peculiar, the more possible to win the female. When the female is enjoying the pavilion, they can judge the ability of the male and decide whether or not to accept the male.
Courtship of the Great Bustard
Great bustard is a national protected wild animal, and they are large habitat birds. There was no significant difference in male and female color, but males were larger than females. If there are other similar entry into the territory or compete for spouse, the two sides will fight. They first slowly close to each other to grip the neck, with the chest to push against each other. If one side retreats, the other follows, and continues to drive it out of the territory.
Great bustard began to multiply in mid-April, and the way of the males courtship to show off is very special. First bent legs, straight neck, move the mouth forward, so that the body and the ground to keep parallel, and then lift up the tail, and show the tendency to fold to the back, so exposing white covered feathers under the tail, and begining its courtship dance. In general, the more and whiter the male exposes its white feathers, the more it is favored by the female, in the competition for the spouse will also have more advantages of competition.
Performance of the bird of paradise
Distributed in New Guinea and its nearby islands, birds of paradise also have wonderful dance. This kind of bird has 16 genera and 41 species, and most of the male are colorful with complex and gorgeous feathers, while the female body color is dim. The male is generally larger than the female. When the male try to attract the female, they will seize the opportunity to show their gorgeous colors and unusual decoration, and use dance, modeling and other display actions to highlight their appearance, presenting a stunning performance for the female. Such performances may last for hours, and for some kinds, this will take them a lot of time. The male will always perform until the female falls in love with him.
Swan Couples
Swan is a rare "life partner" bird, regarded as a symbol of loyalty. Whether it is feeding or resting, swans are kept in pairs. Male swan in the female swan spawning, will be in the next guard; when encountering enemy, it will flap the wings to face the enemy, bravely fighting each other. If a swan dies, the other will live the life alone. Swan's mourning behavior is rich, including touching the beaks or leaning the heads. The male and female will tend to make the same action, but also considerately combing feathers for each other.
Sexual Dimorphism of Pheasants
In birds, the difference in body color of galliformes between male and female is the largest, and pheasant is one of the most typical representatives. Usually, the male color is bright, dazzling while female body color is dark. Among a variety of horned pheasants in the breeding of estrus, the male will grow a unique pheasant angle and skirt. For example, the national secondary level protected wild animals red belly pheasant, whose male bodies are in dark red, folder with many white spots, face in blue; while females whole body in dark gray, with white spots. After entering the breeding season, on the male head grow a pair of fleshy horns, the face and the front chest bulge out of a blue folder with white spots, erythema meat skirt. Bright colors and structure are great attraction for the female. In addition, the red belly pheasant also has the chase behavior during courtship, as the male open mouth, kept shaking the blue skirt, flashing wings, lifting the chest to pursue the female until being accepted ang complete mating.
Giraffes Fight
Giraffes we usually see are very gentle, but do you know what will they behaviour when in the face of rivals? In order to win the opposite sex, to show their own strong, elegant giraffe will use their long neck to attack the rival, or kick the other side with the hoof. Long neck like a huge board can hit the other side of the body, and the heavy impact of sometimes knock the enemy on the ground. The rival may be willing to admit defeat, flee, but some rivals not willing to admit the failure will get up and fight again until a clear winning or losing.
Horns of the Argali
Many animals have horns not only to fight against enemies but often against rivals, such as argali. The fight among male argalis are like ancient wars with rules. In order to show their own strength, each of them first go backward for certain distance, then run to the other side, using giant horns to attack the competitor. The sound is so loud that people can hear from the other side of the mountain, thus they often have scars of collision on their horns.
Antlers of the Elks
Elk is a unique deer animal in China. Male elk has longhorns while the female dont, and the males antlers are completely for the sake of the females. In the summer, when the female give birth to cubs, the male antlers fall off from the base; the following spring, velvet wrapped by the skin begins to grow. In the estrus of the female before June, the males' antlers begin to molt, exposing the angle of the bone, which was prepared for the fight for the estrus. Once the female enter the estrus period, the male begin fighting for the spouse. The male begin to dress themselves, coated with mud, picking the grass as a decoration using their antlers. Males often confront or wrestle during which their temperament suddenly become irritable, giving bursts of calls, using the antlers to dig the ground, and putting the infraorbital gland secretion liquid to the trunks.
Courtship of Butterflies
Butterfly's courtship performance is relatively simple. In the African forest, there are thousands of butterflies living in the rainforest, but to find a spouse is very difficult. The clever butterfly chooses the open area along the creek and flows to the top of the hill. Without the shelter of the leaves, the butterflies are easy to find the spouse. But in order to win the favor of the opposite sex, the male also use exquisite dance to show their skills. So, who fly the fastest, fly the highest, the most likely to win the spouse. This is the butterfly courtship rule.
The Attack Tactics of Amphibians
Amphibian courtship and fighting are no less inferior to birds and mammals. The annual breeding season, male and female frogs gather in a wetland, and this piece of wetlands is their courtship field. The male frogs each occupies the advantageous site. Although there is no dance, constantly loudly singing is the best way to attract the female frog. The greater the male frog is, the louder it sings, and the more likely it is to successfully attract female frogs, hence having access to mating rights. However, there is another situation, when a small male frog can also successfully mate. It turns out that it takes the attack tactic: when the big male frogs attract the female frogs ready to mate, they steal their chance in advance.
In the animal kingdom, in order to win the favor of the opposite sex, access to mating rights, animals are courtship and the way of a variety of different forms of different. The pressure of evolution, so that they courtship method, behavior, strategy are becoming more and more perfect, more and more diversified. But the ultimate goal is to get mating rights, breeding offspring, which is the natural choice to give them the mission.