“Love makes fools of all of us,” wrote 19th-century novelist William Makepeace Thackeray. A moment spent watching the pigeons at your local park suggests he was right: males with puffed-up, shimmering necks hop, pirouette, coo, and bow to capture the attention of unimpressed females.
But why do male pigeons express themselves through the passion of dance? The concept of sexual selection, first proposed by Charles Darwin, suggests that through extravagant displays, males give females information to identify their suitability as a partner. Females who choose the fittest and most well-coordinated dancers should produce fit and well-coordinated offspring.
