Archives: Sexual Selection

Tuesday, July 5, 2022

Peacock physics

We have a new paper out! Biomechanics of the peacock’s display: how feather structure and resonance influence multimodal signaling In this study we describe the rapid feather vibrations that peacocks use during courtship. These vibrations – at a rate of about 26 Hz on average – represent a substantial mechanical and metabolic challenge for... More

Tuesday, July 5, 2022

Life in LA

The Los Angeles Arboretum is one of the most beautiful places I have been. Where else can you see six species of hummingbird zooming from perch to flower, an Asian red-whiskered bulbul nesting beside a dancing peacock, with noisy flocks of parakeets commuting overhead? Even the introduced species (on this list, all but the... More

Tuesday, July 5, 2022

Feel the vibration

In between field work, I’ve been making a lot of videos lately – mostly for my students in the summer course in Ecology and the Environment. But my latest creation is entirely different: it’s for the upcoming American Ornithologists’ Union (read: bird nerd) conference. It features slow-motion clips of peacocks vibrating their train... More

Tuesday, July 5, 2022

Peacocking on Parliament Hill

Here’s my poster from the Evolution conference in Ottawa: The colours are a bit off in this shrunken version, but you can download a larger PDF version here. The poster covers some of my work on the lesser-known green peacock (a close relative of the familiar blue variety). Green and blue peafowl have markedly different body colours,... More

Tuesday, July 5, 2022

How I learned to respect the peahen

Written for the Los Angeles Arboretum. Meep meep? More like “Honk honk!” Arboretum regulars will no doubt recognize the call of a startled peahen, but you may not be aware of the clever ways they use it. Not that they try to boast or taunt the enemy, necessarily, but I’m starting to think that... More

Tuesday, July 5, 2022

Elections are like peacocks

Both are loud, and both cause colourful flashy things to pop up on lawns everywhere. And much like elections, the peacock’s train is a costly endeavour. The species might be better off in terms of survival and abundance if they could just do away with those feathers. In terms of sheer waste, they remind... More

Tuesday, July 5, 2022

Furious about eyespots

I think I flubbed an interview this week. My supervisor Bob and I just published a paper that is getting some press, because it addresses a recent controversy about the peacock’s train1. Eager for the interview with Nature News, I wasn’t exactly prepared with good lines for the reporter to go on – and I... More

Tuesday, July 5, 2022

Groupthink

Which animal would use Facebook most, if it could? My poll in class last week was a popular one – a fact that I couldn’t properly enjoy, since Charlie came up with it for me in a fit of brain-dead incapacity. Charlie’s Facebook question elicited chirps of excitement, compliments and even a few drawings... More

Tuesday, July 5, 2022

Wherefore the mustache?

Ears, palms, toes, neck, and nose. In that order. These are the grossest places for humans to have hair, according to Queen’s students. Ok, there were a few others that I didn’t mention. The upper lip, however, did not receive a single vote. Last fall a number of men in the biology department grew competitive... More

Tuesday, July 5, 2022

Masters of illusion

It can be easy to see intelligence in the animals we spend a lot of time with. Everyone has their pet example, one of the most common being dogs who can anticipate the precise time of their owners’ return. But what does this really say about the mental life of dogs? Some birds are... More

Tuesday, July 5, 2022

Deep archives: Irreducible beauty

                              Were peacocks designed with this kind of audience in mind? A while back I was searching for images of peacock feathers on Google, and I stumbled upon this article. It’s a piece by Stuart Burgess, an engineer who is head... More

Tuesday, July 5, 2022

Deep archives: Sex “pests” get more practice

Having finished my field work this year, I thought I’d keep up with this blog by writing about interesting things that other people have seen animals do. To start: this BBC science news report on the discovery of a “sex pest” seal that attempted to mate with a penguin, brought to my attention by Rob... More

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