I was browsing Time Magazine online for something relevant to our most recent readings–“The Genetic War Between Men and Women” and came across this article titled: How Male Antelopes Get the Girl: Feigning Fear By JEFFREY KLUGER – Monday, May. 24, 2010.

Here’s the link:

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1991425-2,00.html

Lo and behold males always have ulterior motives, using deception to get what they want… go figure! (Maybe this is my angsty 20-something talking, just go with it). This article was actually quite amusing as it describes a cowardice strategy that male topi antelopes use to “get the girl” one more time. They do this with an alarm snort, which is most often used as a signal to inform a nearby predator that it should move on because it has been spotted and as we’ve all seen on Discovery or Animal Planet, the element of surprise is seriously the best part of any hunting scene. Yet, these males in a sense cry wolf, but their dishonest false snorts actually work–the females stop dead in their track and stay because it’s far too risky for them not to and in turn, the males get to mate once more.

This article really toys with the differences in evolutionary goals… survival vs. sex.

I’ll try to gain access to the original article, but for now here’s the citation:

Bro-Jørgensen, J., Pangle, W.M. (2010). Male topi antelopes alarm snort deceptively to retain females for mating. Am Nat. 176: E33–E39.