Alarming sex appeal
Roosters that call out in alarm prove popular with the hens
By Susan Milius
Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 In the long run it’s not a guy’s looks that count. It’s his little clucks in the face of danger.
A high rate of calling out in alarm turns out to be one of the clearest signs of a rooster with a successful sex life, says Chris Evans of MacquarieUniversity in Sydney, Australia. A rooster that readily gives warning calls when danger looms tends to rank high in number of times hens accept him as a mate and in number of chicks sired, Evans, David R. Wilson and colleagues report in the September Animal Behaviour.
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A rooster may waggle a huge, ruby-red comb at hens, but if they’ve had a chance to get to know him, his splendor doesn’t mean success. In tests that mimic real life among fowl, behavior trumps looks.
“As far as I know, their paper is the first to address the sexiness of alarm calling,” says Dan Blumstein of the University of California, Los Angeles, who has studied alarm calls in marmots.