Lek Mating - Leking Behavior

Leking Behavior

Two main types of lek are distinguished, classical leks and exploded leks. In classical leks, individuals gather within sight of each other to court and compete. Physical contest in these situations is frequent, and plays a major role in the mating rituals of certain shorebird and gamebird species. In Copadichromis eucinostomus, a type of fish, the males build sand castles. The lek member with the tallest mound of sand – almost a meter wide at the base – wins the females. These sandcastles take this ten centimeter (four inch) long animal two weeks to build. Peacocks also form leks to display their tails.

In a classical lek there is no male parental care, with males aggregating at the leks site where the only resource for females are the males from which they select their mate. In exploded leks, some of these may not hold and males may not aggregate in a small area but hold larger territories within which the females may also be able to forage for food.

Exploded leks rely on vocal signals. Male hammer-headed bats have a voice box that occupies more than half their body cavities; during breeding season, they gather for several hours at dawn and dusk to honk for females. A famous example of exploded leks is the "booming" call of the Kakapo, the males of which position themselves many kilometers apart from one another to signal to potential mates.

In some species, the males at the leks show a high-degree of relatedness, but this does not appear to be a trend across species.

A lek when females come together to compete for males is called a mung (as in the yellow-spotted millipede).