Sunday 16 December 2012

Fish attracted to same-sex flirts


Female fish are attracted to males that "flirt" with other males, a study has found.

Scientists in Germany studied the behaviour of tropical fish Poecilia mexicana, known as Atlantic mollies.

The female fish are known to "mate copy" - preferring to mate with males they have seen interacting sexually with other fish.

Researchers found that females still took an interest in males when their flirtations were with the same sex.

Dr David Bierbach from the University of Frankfurt, Germany, led the research that is published in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters.

In the paper, researchers refer to homosexual behaviour in the animal kingdom as a "conundrum".

"Male homosexual behaviour can be found in most extant classes across the animal kingdom, but represents a Darwinian puzzle as same-sex mating should decrease male reproductive fitness," they wrote.


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