Are ducks impressed by drakes' display?

Kevin G. McCracken (), Robert E. Wilson, Pamela J. McCracken and Kevin P. Johnson
Additional contact information
Kevin G. McCracken: University of Alaska Fairbanks
Robert E. Wilson: University of Alaska Fairbanks
Pamela J. McCracken: University of Alaska Museum
Kevin P. Johnson: Illinois Natural History Survey

Nature, 2001, vol. 413, issue 6852, 128-128

Abstract: Abstract Surprisingly few birds have penises, but among those that do, the Argentine lake duck (Oxyura vittata) tops the bill — the penis of this small stifftail duck from South America is shaped like a corkscrew and, at almost half a metre long, is the largest of any bird measured so far. Factors responsible for the evolution of this remarkable organ could include runaway selection, whereby drakes with longer penises gain dominance and copulate with more females, or preference by females for drakes with longer and more decorated penises.

Date: 2001
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/35093160 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:413:y:2001:i:6852:d:10.1038_35093160

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/35093160

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().