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The principle of natural selection posits that organisms better adapted to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce. This principle is closely intertwined with mating preferences, a key aspect of sexual selection, which evolutionary psychologists believe is driven by instincts to propagate one's genes. Such instincts significantly influence mating behaviors and preferences between genders.
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Nov 8, 2025

Manipulation of Color Patterns in Jumping Spiders for Use in Behavioral Experiments
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Can an introduced predator select for adaptive sex allocation?

R Heinsohn1, J Au1, H Kokko2

  • 1Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University, Canberra A.C.T. 0200, Australia.

Proceedings. Biological Sciences
|April 28, 2021
PubMed
Summary

Mothers can strategically bias offspring sex to maximize reproductive success. In species with early hatching advantages, producing more males when female mortality is high can enhance competitiveness and reproductive value.

Keywords:
Lathamus discoloradult sex ratiointroduced predatormate competitionoffspring sexswift parrot

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Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Behavioral Ecology
  • Conservation Biology

Background:

  • Typically, species produce equal numbers of males and females, with survival differences rarely impacting this ratio.
  • Overproducing the rarer sex can be adaptive under specific conditions, but maximizing the abundant sex's competitiveness is underexplored.
  • Anthropogenic pressures can severely impact population sex ratios and survival dynamics.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To explore the unexplored strategy of mothers maximizing reproductive value by increasing the competitiveness of the more abundant sex.
  • To develop theoretical models for optimal birth order and sex allocation strategies.
  • To test these models using long-term data from a parrot species facing high female mortality.

Main Methods:

  • Developed a theoretical model for optimal birth order and sex allocation based on future mating competition.
  • Utilized long-term observational data on offspring sex ratios in Swift parrots (Lathamus discolor).
  • Analyzed correlations between hatching order, fledging condition, adult sex ratios, and offspring sex.

Main Results:

  • The theoretical model predicted that mothers maximize reproductive value by producing more males in advantageous early hatching positions when future mate competition is high.
  • Swift parrots exhibited higher male offspring production in early hatching positions during years with increased adult female mortality.
  • A significant correlation was found between observed and predicted birth sex ratios, supporting the model's predictions.

Conclusions:

  • Mothers can strategically influence offspring sex ratios based on birth order advantages and predictable future mating competition.
  • This study provides evidence for rapid evolution of sex allocation strategies under severe anthropogenic pressures.
  • The findings highlight the potential for mothers to maximize reproductive value through adaptive sex allocation in response to environmental changes.