By Susan Milius
From Boise, Idaho, at a meeting of the Animal Behavior Society
When a female Japanese quail watches confrontations between two males, she later tends to choose the loser over the champ.
Studies of male clashes in other animals, such as Siamese fighting fish, have generally found that females prefer winners, says Alexander G. Ophir of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.
Scientists had reasoned that a winning male offers access to better territories, resources, and genes.