title: Only distance matters - non-choosy females in a poison frog population.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Females have often been shown to exhibit preferences for certain male traits. However, little is known about behavioural rules females use when searching for mates in their natural habitat. We investigated mate sampling tactics and related costs in the territorial strawberry poison frog (Oophaga pumilio) possessing a lek-like mating system, where both sequential and simultaneous sampling might occur. We continuously monitored the sampling pattern and behaviour of females during the complete period between two successive matings.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We found no evidence that females compared males by visiting them. Instead females mated with the closest calling male irrespective of his acoustic and physical traits, and territory size. Playback experiments in the natural home ranges of receptive females revealed that tested females preferred the nearest speaker and did not discriminate between low and high call rates or dominant frequencies.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results suggest that females of O. pumilio prefer the closest calling male in the studied population. We hypothesize that the sampling tactic in this population is affected by 1) a strongly female biased sex ratio and 2) a low variance in traits of available males due to strong male-male competition, preventing low quality males from defending a territory and mating.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Zoology, University of Veterinary Medicine, Bünteweg 17d, 30559, Hannover, Germany. ivonne.meuche@tiho-hannover.de.
authors.forename: Ivonne
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Meuche
authors.forename: Oscar
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Brusa
authors.forename: K Eduard
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Linsenmair
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Keller
authors.forename: Heike
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Pröhl