It`s well known that humans dress up to attract the opposite sex, but what about animals? Well according to a University of Queensland researcher Australian animals are even more proactive in their quest for the perfect partner.
Sprouting fluorescent feathers, glowing in the dark and dressing up as the opposite sex are just some of the bizarre mating techniques to be explored in the new ABC documentary Sex in the Bush.
The four-part series, featuring UQ researcher Professor Justin Marshall from the Vision, Touch and Hearing Research Centre, takes viewers on a light-hearted romp through the weird and wonderful sex lives of Australia`s native wildlife. It begins on Tuesday, October 25 at 8pm on ABC TV.
“It`s about everything from attracting and choosing a mate, all the way through to things like sperm competition,” he said.
Professor Marshall`s contribution is what he calls the “foreplay” research - what animals do first in order to attract partners.
His research has examined how animals such as reef fish, parrots, budgerigars and even poison arrow frogs use colour for communication.
But it has much wider applications than just understanding native wildlife behaviour. Broader applications of his colour research include the redesign of satellite sensors to more effectively solve environmental problems on Earth.
“The bottom line here is that sex may save the world. That is, the colour vision and signal mechanisms that have become exquisitely tuned due to sexual selection may help us understand how to design our own man-made colour systems better.”
The ABC program, however, focuses mainly on the battle of the sexes, which Professor Marshall said was as much an issue in the animal world as it was for men and women.
“There is almost no such thing as fidelity in the animal kingdom - those that appear to pair for life, when you look more closely they actually don`t,” he said.
A recent study by Professor Marshall, which will be highlighted during Sex in the Bush, found that budgerigars showed a significant sexual preference for mates with fluorescent plumage.
“It`s the first demonstrated use of fluorescence in the animal kingdom, apart from humans,” he said.
Professor Marshall and his team conducted experiments among budgerigars with naturally-occurring yellow fluorescent plumage on their crowns and cheeks for courtship displays.
Birds were given a choice of two stimulus birds of the opposite sex, one retaining fluorescent plumage on their crown, and the other whose fluorescence was reduced with sunblock.
The researchers found strong evidence for fluorescent sexual signalling among the birds, with focal birds showing a significant sexual preference for fluorescent stimulus birds of the opposite sex.
The team calculated that fluorescent plumage added 14 percent extra “chromatic signal” to the crown region, as perceived by the visual system of another budgerigar.
“The bottom line for budgies, and possibly other parrots, is that success in mating only comes if you literally glow,” Professor Marshall said.
He said the battle of the sexes was just as much an issue in the animal world as it was for men and women and the ABC program aims to challenge assumptions of what is natural, normal and even possible.
“For some time humans have used fluorescence as an attractant,” Professor Marshall said.
“We have fluorescent highlighters and post-it notes, washing powders which give white fluorescence to our clothes, some advertisers use fluorescent paints in their displays and there are now even fluorescent tattoos used in night clubs.”
Sex In The Bush combines stunning wildlife footage with entertaining stories from scientists who have dedicated their lives to the study of animal sex. Episode One, Rules of Engagement, is a guide to finding the perfect mate.
“Sexual selection refers to how you pick your partner and why you would want to have sex in the first place because by having sex you are throwing away half your genetic material and combining with someone else. So it`s a very important decision for animals to make,” he said.
Media: For more information, contact Dr Justin Marshall (telephone 07 3365 1397 or 0423 024 162) or Chris Saxby at UQ Communications (telephone 07 3365 2479, email c.saxby@uq.edu.au).
