What makes a potential partner attractive? For humans, the art of seduction can be a complex combination of biology and psychology, but for animals, luring future mates is often a lot more straightforward. The world’s animals have evolved, in part, based on a principle called sexual selection, which was outlined by the father of evolution, Charles Darwin. He described how animals compete for the attention of the opposite sex through several means, including their appearance, songs and displays of affection.
Those with traits that best suit the needs of a potential partner are selected to mate with, and subsequently those traits are passed down to the next generation. These attributes typically indicate an animal’s ability to survive, such as the strength to dominate other males, find food or grow beautiful feathers, which means their offspring will likely share their abilities. For the majority of the animal kingdom, the female members of wild society are the ‘choosers’ when it comes to finding a mate. But there are, of course, some exceptions to the rule. For
