动物被认为可以从选择高质量或兼容的伴侣中获得显着的健身益处。然而,在交配过程中,物种内部的差异很大。这可能是因为选择的成本和收益因个人状态而异。为了测试这个,我系统地搜索了有关男女动物择偶强度与个体年龄的相关数据,吸引力,身体尺寸,身体状况,交配状态,和寄生虫负载。我对108项研究和78种动物进行了荟萃分析,以量化配偶选择的强度如何根据个体状态而变化。根据性选择理论的预测,我发现,当雌性体型较大且寄生虫负荷较低时,它们明显更挑剔,因此支持了这样一个前提,即女性伴侣选择的表达取决于选择的成本和收益。然而,女性的选择不受女性年龄的影响,吸引力,身体状况,或交配状态。有吸引力的男性比没有吸引力的男性明显更挑剔,但是男性的择偶不受男性年龄的影响,身体尺寸,身体状况,交配状态,或寄生虫负荷。然而,这个数据集受到小样本量的限制,男女个体状态与择偶强度之间的总体相关性相似。然而,在男性和女性的个体状态中,仅解释了伴侣选择强度的少量变化。
Animals are thought to gain significant fitness benefits from choosing high-quality or compatible mates. However, there is large within-species variation in how choosy individuals are during mating. This may be because the costs and benefits of being choosy vary according to an individual\'s state. To test this, I systematically searched for published data relating the strength of animal mate choice in both sexes to individual age, attractiveness, body size, physical condition, mating status, and parasite load. I performed a meta-analysis of 108 studies and 78 animal species to quantify how the strength of mate choice varies according to individual state. In line with the predictions of sexual selection theory, I find that females are significantly choosier when they are large and have a low parasite load, thus supporting the premise that the expression of female mate choice is dependent on the costs and benefits of being choosy. However, female choice was not influenced by female age, attractiveness, physical condition, or mating status. Attractive males were significantly choosier than unattractive males, but male mate choice was not influenced by male age, body size, physical condition, mating status, or parasite load. However, this dataset was limited by a small sample size, and the overall correlation between individual state and the strength of mate choice was similar for both sexes. Nevertheless, in both males and females individual state explained only a small amount of variation in the strength of mate choice.