Display (zoology)

Set of ritualized behaviours in animals

Display behaviour is a set of ritualized behaviours that enable an animal to communicate to other animals (typically of the same species) about specific stimuli. Such ritualized behaviours can be visual, but many animals depend on a mixture of visual, audio, tactical and chemical signals. In other instances, species may make territorial displays, in order to preserve a foraging or hunting territory for its family or group. A third form is exhibited by tournament species in which males will fight in order to gain the 'right' to breed. Animals from a broad range of evolutionary hierarchies avail of display behaviours from invertebrates such as the simple jumping spider

Communication is important for animals throughout the animal kingdom. For example, since female praying mantids are sexually cannibalistic, the male typically uses a cryptic form of display. Contrary to the typically female selected mating that occurs for most organisms, these flies have females that show the display behaviour and males that choose the mate. Females have a bright orange colouring that attracts the male and also perform a series of fluttering wing movements that make the insect appear to "dance" and make the openings on their abdomens to swell in order to attract a male. Auditory courtship behavior is seen in fruit flies like A. suspensa when they perform calling and pre copulatory songs before mating. Both of these sounds are created by rapid flapping of the males wings.

Many arachnids show ritualized displays. For example, the arachnid family Salticidae consists of jumping spiders with keen vision which results in very clear display behaviours for courting in particular. Manakin birds (in the family Pipridae) in the Amazon undergo large demonstrations of display behaviour in order to court females in the population. Since males provide no other immediate benefit to females, they must undergo ritualized behaviours in order to show their fitness to possible mates; the female then uses the information she gathers from this interaction to make a decision on who she will mate with. The first factor is temporal. Depending on the time of the season, animals (more specifically, tropical frogs, in this study) show strong seasonal trends in display behaviour favouring times closer to the beginning of the mating season. Such displays consist of a preliminary raising of claws between 4 and 5 times and if this is not sufficient to warn the other to not encroach on the territory then tactile engagement will occur. In this case, display behaviour is a preliminary step to the engagement of aggressive tactile behaviour whereas many cases of display behaviour result in the engagement of mating rituals.

Human men advertise their suitability as mates by signalling their status in the social hierarchy, often by acquiring wealth or fame. The Papuan big men of New Guinea staged elaborate feasts to show the extent of their influence and power. The potlatches of the Pacific Northwest were held for much of the same effect.

Tournament species in zoology are those species in which members of one sex (usually males) compete in order to mate. In tournament species, the reproductive success of the small group of competition winners is predominantly higher than that of the large group of losers. Tournament species are characterized by fierce same sex fighting. Significantly larger or better armed individuals in these species have an advantage, but only to the competing sex. Thus, most tournament species have high sexual dimorphism. Examples of tournament species include grouse, peafowl, lions, mountain gorillas and elephant seals. In some species, members of the competing sex come together in special display areas called leks. In other species, competition is more direct, in the form of fighting between males. In a small number of species, females compete for males; these include species of jacana, species of phalarope, and the spotted hyena. In all these cases, the female of the species shows traits that help in same sex battles: larger bodies, aggressiveness, territorialism. Even maintenance of a multiple male "harem" is sometimes seen in these animals. Most species fall on a continuum between tournament species and pair bonding species.