To lek or not to lek: mating strategies of male fallow deer

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Abstract
We studied the mating system of fallow deer (Dama dama) for 6 years in central Italy. Males in this population could defend territories that were either single, clumped in leks, or satellite to leks. The most highly successful males in our study were in leks. When we considered all males, there were no significant differences in average copulatory success according to territory type because many lek males did not achieve any copulations, which were seen in only a few lek territories. The variance in copulatory success, however, was much greater for leks than elsewhere. Single territories were occupied for shorter times during the rut than lek territories. Fighting among males was more frequent in the lek, even when we excluded highly successful lek males from the analysis. Chases of nonterritorial males and harem size were correlated with the number of copulations achieved by individual males, but did not vary according to territory type. Copulatory success of some individuals increased with age, but there were no age differences among males holding different types of territories. Satellite males switched to lek territoriality in the course of one rut, but switches from single territory to lek territory were rare. We suggest that males in single territories are inferior competitors that select a low-risk, lowbenefit strategy, whereas those in lek territories where no copulations were seen may be attempting to establish themselves on the lek to increase their copulatory success in future years.

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