CDB Seminar - Maria Luísa Vasconcelos, Champalimaud Foundation

Mating rituals have many goals such as attracting mates, announcing the animal’s species, sex and fitness, synchronizing reproduction, appeasement and persuasion. Communication is essential to achieve these goals. We investigated male-female communication during courtship behaviour. In particular, how the male leads the female to prompt the male to attempt copulation. A different aspect of mating is competition for mates. We explored the behaviour of females in the context of sexual competition and will share our findings with you.