'Brave' chickens can woo hens

MELBOURNE: If you thought only women are impressed by male chivalry, think again, for a new study has revealed that a male reaction to handle a dangerous situation can get sexual success in case of chickens as well.
David Wilson, an Australian scientist with Macquarie University has found the best indicator of mating and reproductive success in roosters and how good they are at protecting the brood.
Wilson, a doctoral student at the University, said the finding counters the "20 years of research" that says looks, or morphology, "matters and nothing else".
The findings are published in the latest issue of Animal Behaviour. Wilson said sexual selection theories for fowl typically suggest ornament size as the best predictor of reproductive success, according to ABC report.
However, these views are based on experiments where a hen is "presented with two unfamiliar and physically separated males that she can evaluate for up to 120 minutes."
In these experiments hens normally choose the rooster with the flashiest appearance, such as the biggest comb. Wilson found that given time and a bit of male-male interaction, hens discriminate along different lines, and in fact those with the biggest combs had the least reproductive success.
For his experiment, Wilson observed the chickens in a more natural setting across a longer time frame. The team observed the behaviour of 22 social groups of three male and three female golden Sebright chickens over two weeks following a week-long "settling in" period.
"These birds live in stable social groups so typically when they choose a mate they do have information gained over a period of time," he says. The study showed roosters that put themselves in danger's way by most often alerting the brood to a predator will get the most girls and father more chicks.