MATING SUCCESS IN LEKKING MALES - A METAANALYSIS

Traits that are correlated with mating success are likely to be subjec t to sexual selection. In lekking species, a male's mating success can be estimated as the number of females that he copulates with. Earlier reviews of sexual selection in lekking species have been inconclusive , suggesting that different traits may be important in different speci es. To obtain a more complete understanding of the outcome of sexual s election in this mating system, we performed a meta-analysis in which we combined the results from different studies across a wide variety o f taxa. Our aim was to synthesize available information about correlat es of male mating success in lekking species. We found that behavioral traits such as male display activity, aggression rate, and lek attend ance were positively correlated with male mating success. Further, ter ritory position was negatively correlated with male mating success, su ch that males with territories close to the geometric center of the le ks had higher mating success than other males. The size of ''extravaga nt'' traits, such as birds tails and ungulate antlers, and age were po sitively correlated with male mating success. Male morphology (measure of body size) and territory size showed small effects on male mating success. Our results confirm some of the suggestions put forward by ea rlier reviews but add more rigor to the conclusions drawn. Part of the variation across studies still remain unaccounted for. Further studie s are needed to perform proper meta-analyses that can take factors lik e phylogeny and sexual dimorphism into account.