page_title: Courtship display
section_title: Energetic costs of courtship display
hierarchical_section_title: Courtship display / Energetic costs of courtship display
caption_attribution_description: Greater sage-grouse lek near Bodie, California. (Jeannie Stafford/USFS)
context_page_description: A courtship display is a set of display behaviors in which an animal, usually a male, attempts to attract a mate; the mate exercises choice, so sexual selection acts on the display. These behaviors often include ritualized movement, vocalizations, mechanical sound production, or displays of beauty, strength, or agonistic ability.
context_section_description: Courtship displays typically involve some sort of metabolic cost to the animal performing it. The energy expended to perform courtship behaviour can vary among species. Some animals engage in displays that expend little energy, as seen in the salamander (Desmognathus ochrophaeus). Under laboratory settings, courtship behaviours in this species, although complex and involving the release of pheromones, represent as little as approximately one percent of its daily calorie intake.
  In contrast, species that engage in prolonged or elaborate displays expend considerable amounts of energy and run the risk of developing fatigue. To prepare and prevent such a risk, some animals may gain weight before a courtship period, only to lose the weight afterward. An example of this can be seen in the greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus). During the peak of their breeding season, which lasts up to three months during spring, leks are frequently visited by groups of up to seventy females. In response to such a large presence of females, males engage in a strutting display up to six to ten times per minute for approximately three to four hours per day. This frequent and repetitive behaviour can result in energy expenditures of up to 2524 kJ/day compared to the inactive males that typically expend 1218 kJ/day.
caption: Greater sage-grouse lek males perform a courtship "strutting" display for visiting females.
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