Essay On Lek Paradox

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"Persistent female choice for a particular male trait values should erode genitive variance in male traits and thereby remove the benefits of choice, yet choice persists” (Miller, Christine and Allen Moore). This phenomenon is know as the Lek Paradox and has puzzled scientists for many years. Throughout all species there has been abundant evidence showing continuous female choice of male traits, yet there is still no definite answer as to what allows for genetic variance to be maintained, and why a specific trait never becomes fixed. Many hypotheses have been theorized and researched, all providing some explanation as to how this variance in species is maintained, from traits signaling resistance to parasites, according to Hamilton and Zuk, to the hypothesis of mutational and environmental affects. Condition-dependence can also provide information as to how the lek paradox is able to exist; this hypothesis will be looked at in this paper.

Leks are males who congregate together and perform outrageous specific rituals in order to entice females to mate with them. Males in these species contribute nothing but their genes, therefore the only benefits a female can acquire from the male are the indirect genetic traits, the ‘good genes’ the male possesses, which are passed on to their offspring, improving their sons future mating success as they inherit the attractive trait from their father. This continuous selection for the most attractive traits should cause directional selection, which in time should erode genetic variance for that trait, decreasing the amount of choice and variation between each individual. This decrease in genetic variance would also lead to impaired survival for that species, due to them all having similar traits...

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...or maintenance of traits that enhance the individuals overall fitness, as stated by ______. For males some of this fitness, which is influenced by the condition of the individual, goes into the expression of sexually selected traits, such as mating calls. This has a indirect result for other traits such as foraging behavior or increasing the risk of predation. This trait then becomes costly, resulting in the evolution of condition dependence, as shown by Price et al. 1993; Anderson 1994; and Johnstone 1995. Individuals in higher conditions have an advantage over others as they have a larger pool to allocate among their competing demands. This means that "condition dependence is expected to arise because individuals in higher condition are better able to pay higher marginal costs of further exaggeration than those in lower conditions”, as stated by Rowe and Houle.

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