WAS Darwin wrong about the sexual allure of the peacock鈥檚 tail? A controversial study in Japan has found no evidence for the traditional view that peahens choose their partners based on the quality of the peacocks鈥� tails.
Mariko Takahashi at the University of Tokyo and her team studied peacocks and peahens in Izu Cactus Park, Shizuoka, from 1995 to 2001. They photographed each male during the tail-fanning display ritual, and counted the number of eyespots 鈥� a measure of tail quality. Next they examined whether females chose mates with the best-quality tails.
During the seven years of observation, Takahashi鈥檚 team observed 268 successful matings. But surprisingly they found that females mated with drab-tailed peacocks as often as with flashy males. They conclude that the peacock鈥檚 train is not the object of female sexual preference 鈥� at odds with Darwin鈥檚 theory of sexual selection (Animal Behaviour, ).
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However, behavioural ecologist Marion Petrie at the University of Newcastle, UK, dismisses the study. 鈥淭hey seem to ignore the fact that three previous independent studies have found relationships between mating success and train morphology,鈥� she says. 鈥淩ather than consider what is unusual about their study, they conclude that peahens in general do not prefer males with elaborate trains.鈥�
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