Birds, sex and beauty : the extraordinary implications of Charles Darwin's strangest idea / Matt Ridley.
Material type:
TextDescription: xii, 340 pages ; 24 cmISBN: - 9780008645526
- 598.1562 RID
| Item type | Current library | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode | |
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Acquisition, Cataloguing, Classification and Distribution Development | 598.1562 RID (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | Available | B228635 |
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| 598.096762 KEN Kenya's important bird areas: status and trends 2014 | 598.096762 NAT Kenya's Important Bird Areas Status and Trends 2015 | 598.096762 ZIM Birds of Kenya & Northern Tanzania / | 598.1562 RID Birds, sex and beauty : the extraordinary implications of Charles Darwin's strangest idea / | 598.338 TAY The Gull next door : Aportrait of a misunderstood bird / | 598.338 TAY The Gull next door : Aportrait of a misunderstood bird / | 598.338 TAY The Gull next door : Aportrait of a misunderstood bird / |
In all animals, mating is a deal. But few creatures behave as if sex is a simple transaction. Many treat it with reverence, suspicion, angst and violence. In the case of the Black Grouse, the bird at the centre of Matt Ridley's investigation, the males dance and sing for hours a day, for several exhausting months, in an exhausting and sometimes deadly ritual called a 'lek'. To prepare for the ordeal, they grow, preen and display fancy, twisted, bold-colored feathers. But why are males the eager sellers and females the discerning buyers? Why do increasingly baroque and bizarre males put themselves at risk of attack by circling hawks and rival birds? And why are these displays considered beautiful by humans at all?
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