UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Thursday, November 7,1996
5
Females rule the family of Manakins
Despite elaborate come-ons, few of the male birds get lucky
By Bradley Brooks
Kansan staff writer
While human males may go to many lengths to attract the attention of a female, the pick-up lines and posturing they use are nothing compared to what a male Manakin bird must go through.
Unlike 95 percent of all birds, Manakin females have complete control over whom they mate with and raising of offspring. The males have one single responsibility.
Brian Flink / KANSAN
"The only thing they need males for is sperm," Prum said. "Most collegiate males would think this would be the best time ever."
Richard Prum, curator of ornithology at the Natural History Museum and assistant professor of systematics and ecology, studies the breeding systems of the Manakin family of birds. He has made annual treks to South America since 1982 to study the unique breeding systems of the Manakins.
That might be true, Prum said, if it weren't for a little fact. "Because of the lack of need for males, females can choose any mate they want to." Prum said.
And they are picky.
Prum said that 10 percent of the males in a group of Manakins fathered all of the offspring and that less than 1 percent of the males in the group conceived half of the baby birds.
"Most males don't mate at all in any given year. The females agree on who are the preferred males," Prum said. "The females are the ones running the show."
As a result of this fowl finckiness, the males have to go to extreme lengths to attract a mate.
The courtship displays are outrageous. Bright colors, hops, jumps, wing flutterings, bizarre posturing and mechanical sounds made by wing flapping are all common." Prum said.
Prum did not discover this behavior, but he is exploring the new twists this puts on evolution.
"This is not evolution by natural selection. This is evolution by sexual selection," he said. "It shows that not all evolution is perfectly adaptive, not limited by a functional scheme."
Males don't need to provide food and protection to attract a mate, as males affected by natural selection do.
"They don't need to be the best functionally, they just need
Richard Prum, assistant professor of systematics and ecology and curator of onmithology at the Natural History Museum, displays a wire-tailed Manakin, one of 40 Manakin species he is
to be preferred," Prum said. "They just need to show up and be preferred."
Prum recently received a $115,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. He said he would continue studying the birds and the implications they have on evolution.
"There is an unlimited amount of field work to do," he said.
studying. Prum studies the evolutionary effects of Manakin courtship and mating patterns, which place an emphasis on females' preferences for a small number of males in a group.
"I will apply and use the same methods used here to study different evolutionary processes."
Andrew Peterson, assistant curator at the Natural History Museum, said Prum's work was groundbreaking.
"It is a fascinating piece of work," Peterson said. "For birds, it is the best body of work documenting the evolutionary process in any single group."
Wanted: Biostore manager with urge to recycle
Biology department attempts to replace former employee
By Dave Breitenstein
Kansan staff writer
Dale Simmons was the main recycler in the biology department. When he resigned as manager of the Biostore on Oct. 4, questions were raised about who would fill his shoes.
A committee of faculty and staff members from the biology department is searching for a new manager of the Biosstore, 3027 Haworth Hall, which sells biology supplies. The committee is seeking candidates with computer experience, background in sales, knowledge of ordering supplies and good organizational skills, said Kandi White, business manager of the department.
She said that interviews would be conducted next week and that the new manager would start in a few weeks.
His shoes are still empty.
efforts to handle the department's recycling, White said the committee would not look only for a recycler because the objective was to hire a Biostore manager, not a recycling coordinator.
Despite Simmons' voluntary
Tim West, director of biology laboratories, said departmental recycling had not dropped off since Simmons left.
"I think Dale did a great job," he said. "I can't think of any ways that we could be more effective than we are now."
Simmons, who left the Biostore for personal reasons, recycled magazines, telephone books, plastic foam peanuts, cardboard boxes, office paper and newspaper. He did this in addition to his managerial duties because no funds were allocated for recycling.
"I wish the campus had more funding for recycling." West said. "There's a pretty significant amount of interested people on this campus and a lot of grassroots efforts are going on."
While the biology department recycles a lot of materials, many objects still end up in the trash.
"There's just no way to recycle some chemical stuff, like glass with a chemical residue on it." West
John O'Brien, chairman of systematics and ecology, said recycling had continued as usual since Simmons left. He said the departmental recycling program could be improved with help from the University.
said. "There's some things that cannot be recycled, no matter how much money we receive."
"Departments get money for speific activities, but recycling is not one of them," he said. "It would be a worthwhile thing to allocate money for that, but it really needs to be done at a higher level, like through the University."
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