Monday, December 22, 2008

BELLOWING SOFTLY WORKS BEST

In a surprise, researchers have found that when it comes to attracting mates and siring offspring, male buffalo whose mating calls are softer do better than their loudmouth rivals. A team led by Megan Wyman, a graduate student at the University of California at Davis, spent two summers recording the calls of 325 wild bison in Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge in Nebraska. Team members watched challenges among males in the herd to determine the bulls' status, counted matings and offspring, and took DNA samples to determine parentage. The report, in the journal Animal Behavior, notes that the least successful bulls were at least 50 percent louder than the more successful ones.

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