Female red deer prefer the roars of larger males.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Charlton BD
PROVIDER: S-EPMC2390678 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Aug
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Female red deer prefer the roars of larger males.
Charlton Benjamin D BD Reby David D McComb Karen K
Biology letters 20070801 4
Surprisingly little is known about the role of acoustic cues in mammal female mate choice. Here, we examine the response of female red deer (Cervus elaphus) to male roars in which an acoustic cue to body size, the formants, has been re-scaled to simulate different size callers. Our results show that oestrous red deer hinds prefer roars simulating larger callers and constitute the first evidence that female mammals use an acoustic cue to body size in a mate choice context. We go on to suggest tha ...[more]
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