Females’ sampling strategy to comparatively evaluate prospective mates in the peacock blenny <Emphasis Type="Italic">Salaria pavo</Emphasis>

Emerging evidence suggests the occurrence of comparative decision-making processes in mate choice, questioning the traditional idea of female choice based on rules of absolute preference. In such a scenario, females are expected to use a typical best-of-n sampling strategy, being able to recall previous sampled males based on memory of their quality and location. Accordingly, the quality of preferred mate is expected to be unrelated to both the number and the sequence of female visits. We found support for these predictions in the peacock blenny, Salaria pavo, a fish where females have the opportunity to evaluate the attractiveness of many males in a short time period and in a restricted spatial range. Indeed, even considering the variability in preference among females, most of them returned to previous sampled males for further evaluations; thus, the preferred male did not represent the last one in the sequence of visited males. Moreover, there was no relationship between the attractiveness of the preferred male and the number of further visits assigned to the other males. Our results suggest the occurrence of a best-of-n mate sampling strategy in the peacock blenny.     

Industrial lead poisoning and chelation therapy in California

The Science of Nature -     

气候变化下自然保护所面临的挑战——气候变化对滇西北及相关地区生态系统的潜在影响

2007年11月21日,大自然保护协会（TNC）气候变化专家Barry Baker博士应邀来到北京环境记者沙龙发表演讲。Barry Baker博士长期以来一直关注气候变化对大自然生态系统以及人类生存所带来的挑战。作为一个科学家,他和自己的工作小组一起深入云南横断山区、青海长江源区以及西藏、新疆等自然保护区进行考察、测量,以严谨、精湛的科学精神,