Sexual choice in lekking fallow deer (Dama dama): variable female strategies

Here we report one of the first analysis of female mating strategies in lekking fallow deer. The present work try to answer two basic questions. Do females use different strategies of mate selection at lek? If so, do such strategies depend on costs and/or experience of females? We studied the behaviour of 10 radio-collared and 92 ear-tagged fallow deer females during 4 rutting periods (2000 to 2003) in the Preserve of Castelporziano, Rome. Each female was assigned to a distance class (distance between home range and lek) and this was assumed to be a proxy for the cost of moving to the arena. Since most of females use to visit the lek every year, their age covaries with experience. Younger females spend more time at lek and mate significantly later than adult ones. We interpret the observed increase in the variance in male reproductive success observed after the peak of the rut, as determined by an increase in the unanimity of female choice because young fallow does copy the mate choice of adults. Females living close to the lek, begin to visit the arena early in the rutting period where they spend much time (up to 208 hours), maybe to have the opportunity to assess the quality of the largest number possible of bucks. On the contrary, females living farther from the arena visit males at lek only the time strictly necessary for mating. To increase the precision of choice, these females make use forms of indirect assessment of male quality, such as association to other females and selecting territories which were characterised by high male success in the precedent year, but they do not seem to copy the choice of other females. Females living at more than 8 km from lek usually do not to visit the arena, since costs for moving are probably too high. Besides, we demonstrate that non-independent strategies of male quality assessment do not results in the same benefits of direct assessment.