LEKKING IN TOPI - A CONSEQUENCE OF SATELLITE BEHAVIOR BY SMALL MALES AT HOTSPOTS

Male topi, Damaliscus lunatus, either defend large territoriescontaining food resources or join leks. In this study there was large variation in mating success on leks with a few males getting the majority of matings. Resource territories attracted more females than the territories of unsuccessful males on leks. All males on leks spent more time in contest behaviour than males in resource territories so that the majority of lek males that obtained few matings incurred high costs and low benefits. The reason that unsuccessful males stay on leks, rather than adopt the less costly alternative of resource defence, may be that they are smaller than males in resource territories and thus unable to win fights to acquire resource territories. Although scucessful territories were scattered through the study lek, two small territories near the centre consistently attracted many more females than any others. This pattern persisted regardless of which male was in residence; females even came to these territories when the owner was absent. The ability to hold a successful lek territory could be a more reliable indicator of competitive ability, and thus fitness, than any single phenotypic characteristic. Leks may develop from groups of successful resource territories. In the case of topi, the desirable feature of these territories is probably a resting area in open habitat where females concentrate for anti-predator advantage. It is proposed that leks appear when small, satellite males of low resource-holding potential cluster around the males in these successful territories. © 1990 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.