Courtship and Mate Choice
Courtship consists of a wide variety of behaviors performed with the intention of achieving an opportunity to mate. Successful courtship results in a pair of animals copulating. Both members of the pair participate in copulation, and this often leads to situations where one individual must persuade the other to choose them as their mate. This process of persuasion occurs through courtship rituals. In some cases, courtship behaviors can be so consistent among members of a species that they are referred to as courtship rituals. These behavioral displays vary across species, but they share the central role of providing a means through which a suitor can advertise their qualities to potential mates. Through performance and evaluation of these displays, individuals engaged in courtship choose their mates; and successful courtship can lead to copulation and the formation of social pair bonds. Pair bonding behaviors and the associated social connection can thus...
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Coulter, A., Prather, J.F. (2021). Courtship Rituals. In: Vonk, J., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_289-1
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