Why do animals mate with the "wrong" partner?
Organisers David Shuker and Nathan Bailey, University of St Andrews.
Animals often attempt to mate with partners that appear to be of "low quality". Such partners range from apparently low fitness individuals of the opposite sex but of the same species, through to members of the same sex or even members of a different species, from which no fitness benefits should accrue. In this two-day meeting we will explore the evolutionary causes and consequences of seemingly "sub-optimal" mate choice behaviour. There are two questions we hope will be addressed. First, are behaviours such as reproductive interference between species or same-sex matings within species biologically relevant or merely quirky pathologies that offer little insight? Second, to what extent do mate choices in one context (getting the "right" species or sex, or the "sexiest" partner) inform us about mate choice in other contexts?
We hope to stimulate behavioural ecologists to think again about what we expect from mate choice and to consider whether unusual mate choices may help or hinder our view of mating systems and sexual selection. Although mate choice is our focus, we expect the discussion to be wide-ranging and relevant to those interested in animal decision-making, especially context-dependent choice, and individual variation in behaviour more generally.
We delighted that Professor Marlene Zuk (University of California Riverside) and Professor Karin Pfennig (University of North Carolina) will be our plenary speakers.
If you would like to contribute a talk (20 + 5 minutes) or poster to the meeting, please email an abstract (200 words max.) to Dave Shuker at:
david.shuker@st-andrews.ac.uk
The deadline for abstract submission for spoken presentations will be July 31st 2011. Poster presentations may be considered after that date, depending on available space. We hope to provide a preliminary schedule of talks sometime in August.
We are also delighted that Professor Gene Robinson (University of Illinois) will be giving the 2011 Tinbergen Lecture during the meeting, and that Dr Sarah Pryke (Macquarie University) will be giving her Christopher Barnard Award for Outstanding Contributions by a New Investigator talk.
As is traditional, the ASAB Winter Meeting has no fee and does not require registration. However delegates make their own arrangements for travel, accommodation and main meals. For further details and updates about the programme of the conference, and for ideas about accommodation, please visit our website:
http://biology.st-andrews.ac.
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Dr David M Shuker
NERC Advanced Research Fellow
School of Biology
University of St Andrews
Harold Mitchell Building
St Andrews
Fife KY16 9TH
UK
Email: david.shuker@st-andrews.ac.uk
LAB WEBSITE: http://biology.st-andrews.ac.
