Tag Archives: potential mates

Skin colouring of rhesus macaque monkeys linked to breeding success

Skin colour displayed amongst one species of monkey provides a key indicator of how successfully they will breed, a new study has shown.

The collaborative international research also shows that skin colouration in male and female rhesus macaques is an inherited quality – the first example of heritability for a sexually-selected trait to be described in any mammal. (more…)

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Birds choose sweet-smelling mates

For most animals, scent is the instant messenger of choice for quickly exchanging personal profiles. Scientists, however, have long dismissed birds as odor-eschewing Luddites that don’t take advantage of scent-based communications.

In a first-of-its-kind study, however, a Michigan State University researcher has demonstrated that birds do indeed communicate via scents, and that odor reliably predicts their reproductive success. The study appears in the current issue of Animal Behaviour and focuses on volatile compounds in avian preen secretions. (more…)

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