Males vs. Females: Sexual Conflict
Download a free audiobook when you sign up for a 30-day trial at http://www.audible.com/minuteearth In the animal kingdom, sex often involves more conflict than cooperation. The struggle between...
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To pass their genes along to the next generation, most animals need a partner. So in one sense,mating is cooperative, with each partner contributing half their DNA to the offspring. But matingalso involves plenty of competition between the sexes. That's because both males and femalesare hardwired to try to make babies that can survive and reproduce, but they do this intotally different ways - ways that actually threaten the other sex’s genetic legacy.For males, it’s all about quantity. Sperm are easy to mass produce, and most males spendlittle time or energy parenting, so their best mating strategy is to breed in bulk:the more offspring they have, the better the odds that some will thrive.For most females, this strategy doesn’t work, because they have...
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To pass their genes along to the next generation, most animals need a partner. So in one sense,mating is cooperative, with each partner contributing half their DNA to the offspring. But matingalso involves plenty of competition between the sexes. That's because both males and femalesare hardwired to try to make babies that can survive and reproduce, but they do this intotally different ways - ways that actually threaten the other sex’s genetic legacy.For males, it’s all about quantity. Sperm are easy to mass produce, and most males spendlittle time or energy parenting, so their best mating strategy is to breed in bulk:the more offspring they have, the better the odds that some will thrive.For most females, this strategy doesn’t work, because they have...
