• Question: WHY DO MALES FIGHT OVER FEMALES WHY DONT FEMALES FIGHT FOR MALES

    Asked by 784anmh29 to Rupert, Ellen, Carrie on 16 Mar 2017.
    • Photo: Ellen Williams

      Ellen Williams answered on 16 Mar 2017:

      This is different in different species. In some species do fight over males instead of the other way around!

    • Photo: Carrie Ijichi

      Carrie Ijichi answered on 16 Mar 2017:

      That is a great question. Female eggs are very costly to make and then can only carry a small number of babies (depending on the species) and have to invest a lot in gestating and caring for young. Male sperm is cheap to make and they invest much less and can have a large number of offspring. Therefore, the female needs to make sure she gets the strongest, fittest male which she can tell if they have to fight it out for access to females.

      Basically, it only takes one male to fertilise and large number of females so it’s really worth fighting to be that male!

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