Culture and courtship in vertebrates: a review of social learning and transmission of courtship systems and mating patterns

Female and male animals often choose mates based upon the complementarity o f their courtship behaviours acid preferences. The importance of this fact on the evolutionary dynamics of populations has long been appreciated. What has not been appreciated is the role that social learning might play in th e transmission of systems of courtship behaviour across generations. This p aper addresses the social transmission of courtship behavioural traditions in vertebrates. It discusses views of culture in the context of behavioural signals and preferences in courtship. It then reviews empirical evidence f or culture-like processes affecting courtship behaviour, focusing on studie s of song learning in passerine birds and work on social learning of mating preferences. The paper concludes with potential Future directions for rese arch on social traditions in systems of courtship behaviour, including dete rmining mechanisms of transmission, genetic and non-social environmental ef fects, and selective factors influencing the stability of behavioural tradi tions over time. By integrating proximate and ultimate questions for the tr ansmission of courtship systems, this work would increase our understanding of the ways individual development, cultural processes, and population evo lution influence, and are in turn influenced by, one another. (C) 2000 Else vier Science B.V. All rights reserved.