Department of Zoology

USA TODAY featured research by recent Zoology alumnus Wiline Pangle (PhD '08) on sexual deception used among antelopes.

The study, to be published in the July 2010 edition of the American Naturalist, is co-authored by Jakob Bro-Jorgensen of the United Kingdom's Liverpool University, and Pangle of Michigan State University.

The study followed the mating behaviors of the topi antelope in Kenya. Researchers observed that some males used false 'lion warnings' to deter straying females from leaving the male's territory - thus creating an extended period of time for additional mating opportunities.  The false alarm snorts deceived the receptive females into believing that they were headed towards a predator.

The antelopes were observed by biologists for 274 hours, from 2005 to 2009, in Kenya's Masai Mara National Reserve.  The study calls this a first documented case of such sexual deception by false alarms.

Read the article in USA TODAY