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Animal seduction: does intelligence beat looks?

Until recently, few studies on birds have looked at how intelligent behaviors in males can be used to attract females. But this is exactly what Dutch and Chinese researchers examined in their research to determine whether intelligence could win out over appearance when it comes to finding a mate. Here are the findings of this Darwin-inspired research.

The Budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulatus) lives in all arid and semi-arid areas of Australia, where finding food is sometimes difficult. An individual’s ability to find food may thus be of great value… A team of researchers from the University of Beijing (China) and Leiden (the Netherlands) decided to specifically study how cognitive skills influence the females’ choice of mates in these parakeets. Using a clever experimental protocol (albeit rather “cruel” for the male parakeet originally chosen by the female), Carel ten Cate and his colleagues wanted to determine whether intelligence (the ability to solve a problem) could override appearance during courtship.

The scientists first performed a test where each female was placed in the company of two males and waited to see which male the female preferred. The female birds showed a clear preference for one of the males in this situation and are “naturally” won over by plumage and vocal capacity. But this is where the experimental “ruse” comes in… The researchers took the overlooked male "under their wing" and provided him with a secret training in private: they taught him to open two boxes containing food. They then reintroduced the trained males to the females. The female birds marveled at the ability of these parakeets to open the boxes with dexterity, something which the males they had originally chosen were unable to do.

Were the overlooked males able to successfully seduce the females with their new-found cognitive abilities? The answer is yes: the female parakeets changed their initial preference after observing the less attractive candidates solve a problem (and find food), something their rivals couldn’t do (these poor birds didn’t receive the training and simply stood by the sealed container looking rather clueless). According to the authors: “[this] demonstrates that direct observation of cognitive skills can affect mate preference and, thus, that cognitive abilities may be selected by mate choice directly.” They added: “This finding supports hypotheses, starting with that of Darwin, that sexual selection may affect the evolution of cognitive traits across animal species.” Thus, choosing a (sexual) partner according to their intellectual capacities could advance the cognitive performance of the species.

Note that there is however a slight flaw in the research protocol. The female parakeets were never given an opportunity to open the boxes themselves… Doing so could have given them an idea of the complexity of the task and made them better able to determine just how clever the males were.
Source: Jiani Chen, Yuqi Zou, Yue-Hua Sun, Carel ten Cate: “Problem-solving males become more attractive to female budgerigars”, in Science, vol.363, Jan. 2019 // Leiden University website: “Female budgerigars like smart males”: https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2019/01/female-budgerigars-like-smart-males

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