User:CatStewart12/sandbox

This is my sandbox.

Female Assessment of Males
While the majority of the research into the interactions that lead to alternative mating strategies has a focus on male to male competition, the interaction between males and females also plays a significant role in the mating strategy used (see Sexual Selection). Female assessment of the males (see Female Mate Choice) plays a role in the number of males opting to use an alternative mating technique. Females are likely to not choose to mate with males of a lower quality, so these males will have to adopt alternative mating techniques in order to mate. The ability of the female to assess possible mates also plays a role in the frequency of alternative mating strategies. If a female is unable to assess and choose mates accurately, for example due to time constraints or assessment costs, then males of a lower quality are more likely to be chosen. While if the females have lots of time and resources available to them, allowing them to accurately choose males, then the lower quality males are unlikely to be chosen and so will have to adopt alternative mating techniques.

The number of mates available to the female will also change the frequency of males adopting alternative mating techniques. If the female does not have many options of males to mate with then males of a lower quality are more likely to be chosen by the females as they have less options. This means that males that would normally have to adopt an alternative mating strategy in a larger population can now mate using the primary mating strategy.