A Case Study of Avian Lekking Behavior

 

Part 1: Why Lek?

Lekking behavior in birds is a form of promiscuous mating where certain males will mate with several different females without any type of future parental or resource investment. In a classical lek, males congregate in an arena (also called a lek) and claim their individual territories in order to display and attract females. While most avian lekking species partake in classical leks, some species form what are called exploded leks, where males separate themselves by long distances and attract the females almost exclusively by vocal mechanisms.

Sage Grouses Lekking on a Prairie

Permission pending from Neil Losin


While many researchers agree that lekking is an adaptive behavior and ultimately increases the reproductive success of individual males, why it does so is a question that researchers often debate (Stein and Uy 2006; Saether et al. 2005; Ryder et al. 2006; Dastagir et al. 1997). Approximately thirty-five species of birds employ lek promiscuity as a mating system. Although no species’ leks are identical mechanistically, most leks take a form such that dominant males defend a territory in the middle of the lek, with subordinate males towards the edges. Also, in most leks, researchers have found that dominant males to the majority of mating, while some subordinate males do not mate at all (Dastagir et al. 1997).

 

 

Questions:

1. Generate some hypotheses as to why some species of birds have evolved lekking behavior as a mating system.

2. Do you think that all avian lekking species employ this type of mating system for similar reasons?

3. Why would subordinate males join a lek if their chances of mating are low?

 

Part 2: Lekking in Manakins