ORNATE PLUMAGE OF MALE RED JUNGLEFOWL DOES NOT INFLUENCE MATE CHOICE BY FEMALES

Males of the polygynous red junglefowl, Gallus gallus, possess specialized, highly ornate plumage that previous correlational studies weakly implicated as a factor in mate choice by female junglefowl. To test more directly for a role of male plumage, pairs of males, one with normal, wildtype plumage and the other with mutant plumage, were presented to female pure red junglefowl. One set of mutant males exhibited silver, rather than the normal orange and red, coloration, while the other exhibited cryptic, brown plumage identical to that of female red junglefowl. In neither case did females show a preference for the normal-plumaged males. However, other manipulative choice tests showed that the same females strongly preferred males with large combs. These results indicate that although females do discriminate between males, the plumage is not the target of the females' attention.