Landels-Hill Big Creek Reserve

04 Feb, 04 AM - 07 Feb, 04 AM

Mating with genetically incompatible individuals can entail dire reproductive consequences. As a result, the honest advertisement of genetic constitution should be integrally involved in an individual?s quest to pair with the most appropriate social and sexual partners. Indeed, both male and female choice of high-quality and genetically compatible partners is well established, albeit primarily in animals born and housed in captivity. Despite the extensive accumulation of either behavioral or genetic evidence for active mate choice in many species, field researchers rarely integrate these two fields of evidence (6), preferring instead to study either behavioral or genetic evidence of mate choice exclusively in any given species. Furthermore, we understand relatively little about how mate choice functions outside of the laboratory and alongside the natural stressors that accompany life in the wild. Accordingly, I plan to use a comparative and integrative approach to investigate the potential discord between genetic and behavioral evidence of mating preferences. By targeting two ecologically similar and highly sympatric species of wild mice that vary notably in mating system, I will also begin to explore the limitations that nature (the reality) imposes on mating preferences in natural populations of mammals. Lastly, by studying these issues in a comparative context, I will begin to elucidate how these limitations differ with respect to various mating systems.

Visit #24020 @Landels-Hill Big Creek Reserve

Approved

Under Project # 23092 | Research

Integrative analyses of mammalian mate choice in a natural and comparative context.

graduate_student - University of California, Berkeley

Reservation Members(s)

Jeremy Crawford Feb 4 - 7, 2011 (4 days)
Jeremy Crawford Feb 4 - 7, 2011 (4 days)

Reserve Resources(s) | Create Invoice

Whale Point Researcher Cabin 2 Feb 4 - 7, 2011