School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QH, UK.
J Exp Biol. 2013 Apr 1;216(Pt 7):1127-30. doi: 10.1242/jeb.070318.
Experimental studies of mate choice have normally focused on non-mammal animal species, in which female mating preferences are based on clearly defined male traits. Because mammals are invariably larger and behaviourally more complex, they are less suited to this type of experimentation. Nevertheless, numerous studies on nonhuman mammals have shown that females appear to actively choose their mates. In this Commentary, I review the current literature to reveal that most experimental tests of mate choice in mammals are unable to reveal the actual male phenotypic trait(s) of female preference, which is crucial for identifying male characteristics under sexual selection. In addition, very few studies take into account female oestrous stage, or quantify the fitness benefits to discriminating females. Future work should concentrate on demonstrating female preferences for specific male traits that are shown by genetic paternity analysis to be correlated with male reproductive success, using setups that control for the effects of male and female mating strategies and in which the actual experiments are performed during the female's peak oestrous period.
实验性的择偶选择研究通常集中在非哺乳动物物种上，在这些物种中，雌性的交配偏好是基于明确界定的雄性特征。因为哺乳动物通常体型更大，行为也更复杂，它们不太适合这种类型的实验。然而，大量关于非人类哺乳动物的研究表明，雌性似乎会主动选择它们的伴侣。在这篇评论中，我回顾了当前的文献，揭示了大多数哺乳动物择偶选择的实验测试都无法揭示女性偏好的实际雄性表型特征，这对于确定在性选择下的雄性特征至关重要。此外，很少有研究考虑到雌性发情期，或者量化了对雌性进行区分的适应度收益。未来的工作应该集中在展示女性对特定雄性特征的偏好上，这些特征通过遗传亲子分析表明与雄性繁殖成功相关，并使用控制雄性和雌性交配策略影响的设置，并且在雌性发情高峰期进行实际实验。
