Animal Decision-making for Habitat and Mates: the Selection of Breeding Commodities Through the Use of Inadvertent Social Information

Choosing where to breed and with whom to mate are two of the most important fitness-enhancing decisions in animals' lives. Animals are thus expected to have developed mechanisms of active preference for those habitats and mates that are more likely to produce viable offspring. This implies that animals use some kind of information about environmental quality to identify which of the existing alternatives is likely to be the most advantageous. Two main strategies are possible: either animals choose independently from conspecifics by relying on the information encoded in their genes, or they choose non-independently, by relying on the inadvertent social information (ISI) derived from the reproductive performance of conspecifics as a way of reducing uncertainty. Numerous empirical, theoretical and experimental studies have already provided evidence for the use of ISI in several species of birds, fish and mammals. Here is reported for the first time the use of ISI during mate choice by an invertebrate species, suggesting that such a strategy is probably widespread in nature. It is also discussed the consequences of ISI use as a plausible mechanism for animal group living evolution.