Question: What relation does mathematics have to animal mating?

Sam Tazzyman answered on 15 Jun 2011:

An example is this: suppose I have to work out how a species of bird evolved a big tail in the males. I imagine an ancient population of the type of bird that didn’t have big tails in the males. Then I write an equation to say how likely a male bird is to survive if he has a big tail, and also how likely he is to breed. You can imagine that having a big tail makes him less likely to survive (if for example on average birds with smaller tails are less likely to be caught by predators), but having a big tail makes him more likely to breed (if females fancy males with big tails). Of course this equation isn’t precise for all males, but on average it will show whether the tail size of males is likely to increase or decrease. If the benefit through being more likely to breed is bigger than the cost through being more likely to be killed by predators, then average tail size in males will increase. And it’s maths that shows us this, along with the logic of evolution.

I hope that answers your question!