Peacocks lek with relatives even in the absence of social and environmental cues

letters to nature

11511152 (1998).17. Davis, A. P. Tilting at windmills? The second law survives. Angew. Chem. Int Edn Engl. 37, 909910 (1998).

Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to B.L.F. (e-mail: B.L.Feringa@chem. rug.nl).

Acknowledgements Financial support from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientic Research (NWO-STW) to B.L.F. is acknowledged.

.................................................................Peacocks lek with relatives even in the absence of social and environmental cues

Marion Petrie*, Andrew Krupa & Terry Burke * Evolution and Behaviour Research Group, Department of Psychology, University of Newcastle, Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE1 7RU, UK Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Shefeld, Shefeld S10 2TN, UK

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Lek mating systems are characterized by males displaying in groups. The main benet from group display is thought to be an increase in the number of females arriving per male. However, when mating success is highly skewed it is not clear why unsuccessful males participate in group display1. In theory, all males on leks could obtain indirect tness benets if displaying groups consisted of related individuals2. Here we present two independent sets of data that show that peacocks (Pavo cristatus) display close to their kin. DNA ngerprinting showed that males at Whipsnade Park were more closely related to males within the same lek than to males at other leks. Separately, we found that after an experimental release of a mixed group of related and unrelated males, brothers (paternal sibs or half-sibs) established permanent display sites very close together. This result is unex-

pected, as the released birds could not become familiar with their brothers during their development. The released young were hatched from eggs that had been removed from their parents shortly after laying and mixed with the eggs of non-relatives. These data indicate that birds can evolve a means of kin association that does not involve learning the characteristics of relatives or the use of environmental cues. If social learning is not necessary for kin association then kin effects may be of more widespread importance in avian social interactions, and in particular in the evolution of lek mating, than previously appreciated.

Males in lek mating systems aggregate to display to attract females. Group display has been shown to increase the number of females arriving per male in several lekking species3,4, but, as a...