Question

1. Why can fancy traits, like long tail feathers that make flying more difficult, evolve even if they make survival less likely?

2. Why do you think it is more common for male birds to evolve fancier traits than female birds?

Answer 1

Ques-1: Why can fancy traits, like long tail feathers that make flying more difficult, evolve even if they make survival less likely?

Answer: Fancy, beautiful aesthetic tail of the birds (ex. peacock) has long tail feathers than short tail feathers and these long tail feathers are making more prone to sexual selection. For instance, female peacock is always preferred to mate with a male peacock with long tails. However, the major difficulty is associated with long fancy tails is inability to escape from predation due to difficulty in flying as these feathers often produce more weigh. The genes coding for longer tails of traits are dominant and higher finally making specific sexual selection to produce offspring with low fitness, therefore make their survival rate less likely. The aesthetic long tail features make them more prone to risk of predation due to more conspicuous and slower movement.