Courtship
Courtship is a collection of instinctive behaviors that result in mating and eventual reproduction. Courtship is important because it helps to ensure that breeding will occur. Organisms within a species must reproduce successfully in order for the species to survive. Courtship has many other functions, including mate selection, regulation of sexual readiness so that the reproductive physiology of a pair may be synchronized, the reduction of hostility between potential sex partners in territorial animals, and species recognition. Courtship may be rather simple, involving a small number ofvisual, chemical, or auditory stimuli, or it may be a highly complex series of acts involving several types of communication. Some of the most complex courtship behaviors are found in birds.
Mating Systems
In addition to complex courtship patterns, birds also have interesting and varied breeding or mating systems. The most common type of mating system is monogamy, which resembles a traditional human marriage. Ninety percent of birds are monogamous. In this type of mating system, two birds come together or form a pair bond for the procreation of young. The length of the pair bond varies greatly between species and between individuals. A mated pair may remain together for life, as in the case of albatrosses, petrels, swans, geese, eagles, and some owls and parrots.
This is a free page. This page contains 201 words. This
article contains 1,625 words (approx. 5 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Article with our Courtship Access Pass.
