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Display is a form of animal behaviour
Ethology

Ethology is the scientific study of animal behavior, and a branch of zoology .Although many naturalists have studied aspects of animal behavior through the centuries, the modern discipline of ethology is usually considered to have arisen with the work in the 1930s of Dutch biologist Nikolaas Tinbergen and Austrian biologist Konrad Lorenz,...
, linked to survival of the species in various ways. Some species use display as a form of courtship, with the male usually having a striking feature that is distinguished by colour, shape or size, used to attract a female. Other species may exhibit territorial display behaviour, in order to preserve a foraging
Foraging

Foraging theory is a branch of behavioral ecology that studies the foraging behavior of animals in response to the environment in which the animal lives....
 or hunting
Predation

In ecology, predation describes a biological interaction where a predator feeds on its prey, the organism that is attacked. Predators may or may not kill their prey prior to feeding on them, but the act of predation always results in the death of the prey....
 territory for its family or group. A third form is exhibited by tournament species, in which males will fight in order to gain the 'right' to breed.

nament species in zoology
Zoology

Zoology is the branch of biology concerned with the study of animals. The most common pronunciation of "zoology" is ; however, an alternative pronunciation is ....
 are those species
Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring....
 in which members of one sex (usually male
Malé

Mal? , population 104,403 , is the Capital , the largest city in terms of population, and the name of an island in the Maldives. It is located at the southern edge of North Male' Atoll Kaafu Atoll....
s) compete in order to mate.






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Display is a form of animal behaviour
Ethology

Ethology is the scientific study of animal behavior, and a branch of zoology .Although many naturalists have studied aspects of animal behavior through the centuries, the modern discipline of ethology is usually considered to have arisen with the work in the 1930s of Dutch biologist Nikolaas Tinbergen and Austrian biologist Konrad Lorenz,...
, linked to survival of the species in various ways. Some species use display as a form of courtship, with the male usually having a striking feature that is distinguished by colour, shape or size, used to attract a female. Other species may exhibit territorial display behaviour, in order to preserve a foraging
Foraging

Foraging theory is a branch of behavioral ecology that studies the foraging behavior of animals in response to the environment in which the animal lives....
 or hunting
Predation

In ecology, predation describes a biological interaction where a predator feeds on its prey, the organism that is attacked. Predators may or may not kill their prey prior to feeding on them, but the act of predation always results in the death of the prey....
 territory for its family or group. A third form is exhibited by tournament species, in which males will fight in order to gain the 'right' to breed.

Tournament species

Tournament species in zoology
Zoology

Zoology is the branch of biology concerned with the study of animals. The most common pronunciation of "zoology" is ; however, an alternative pronunciation is ....
 are those species
Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring....
 in which members of one sex (usually male
Malé

Mal? , population 104,403 , is the Capital , the largest city in terms of population, and the name of an island in the Maldives. It is located at the southern edge of North Male' Atoll Kaafu Atoll....
s) compete in order to mate. In tournament species, most members of the competing sex never win the competitions and never mate, but almost all members of the other sex do mate with the small group of winners.

Since in the vast majority of tournament species the males compete, the competing sex will be referred to as "the males". Tournament species are characterized by fierce male-to-male competition; males which are significantly larger (up to three times the mass of the female) or possess more natural weaponry or are more gaudily decorated than females; by high variability in male reproductive success, as winning males mate with many females and losing males mate with few or none or die in the competition itself; and by high promiscuity in both sexes, which occasions small or no male parental investment.

In some species, the competition between males involves displays in which females choose winning males; these contests are called leks. In other species, competition is more direct, in the form of fighting between males.

Examples of tournament species include peacocks, in which the female peahens judge male peacocks on the size and coloration of their large and gaudy tail, several species of antelope
Antelope

Antelope are ruminant hoofed mammals of the family Bovidae in the order of even-toed ungulates. These animals are spread relatively evenly throughout the various subfamily of Bovidae and many are more closely related to cows or goats than to each other....
, in which males use their antlers to fight one another, and Elephant seal
Elephant seal

Elephant seals are large, oceangoing earless seals in the genus Mirounga. There are two species: the Northern Elephant Seal and the Southern Elephant Seal ....
s, the males of which use their large size to fight one another.

In a small number of species, females compete for males; these include species of Jacana
Jacana

For the Melbourne suburb, see Jacana, Victoria.The jacanas or ja?anas are a group of tropical waders in the family Jacanidae....
, species of Phalarope
Phalarope

A phalarope is any of three living species of slender-necked Waders in the genus Phalaropus of the bird family Scolopacidae. They are close relatives of the shanks and Tattler s, the Actitis and Terek Sandpipers, and also of the turnstones and calidrids....
, and the Spotted Hyena
Spotted Hyena

The Spotted Hyena, or Laughing Hyena, is a Carnivora mammal of the family hyaenidae. It is the largest of the hyenas, and is native to sub-Saharan Africa, save for the Congo basin....
. In all these cases, the female of the species shows stereotypically "male" traits: larger bodies, aggressiveness, or even maintenance of a multiple-male "harem".

Most species fall on a continuum between tournament species and pair-bonding species.

See also

  • Sexual selection
    Sexual selection

    Sexual selection is the theory proposed by Charles Darwin that states that certain evolutionary traits can be explained by intraspecific competition....
  • Mating ritual
    Mating ritual

    Mating rituals may refer to:*Mating, for mating rituals in the animal kingdom*Courtship, for mating rituals in human culture...
  • threat display
    Threat display

    Threat display is a type of display behaviour aiming at intimidation of a potential enemy. It may be directed at a rival of the same species , or at a potential threat from a different species....