Charles Darwin reckoned the answer was sexual selection – a theory that explains why beauty can sometimes be a game-changer.

Male animals in many species are often more visually striking than females, with features such as vibrant feathers, impressive antlers, or elaborate patterns. This phenomenon puzzled Charles Darwin, leading him to propose the theory of sexual selection, which suggests that certain traits evolve to increase an animal's chances of mating, even if they make them more visible to predators.

The article explains that these attractive traits can serve as indicators of genetic fitness, with females often choosing mates based on these conspicuous characteristics. The 'sexy son hypothesis' is also discussed, proposing that females select attractive males to produce sons who are also likely to be successful in mating. However, exceptions exist, such as in hyenas and pipefish, where females may be more dominant or visually distinctive.

Why are male animals often more attractive than females?

When it comes to the natural world, why are males so often more attractive than females? Their patterns are often more splendid, their horns and antlers more impressive, and their feathers more colourful. The females, on the other hand, are rather less flamboyant. Darwin himself puzzled over this. After all, conspicuous animals are more easily spotted by predators, which is somewhat counter to the principle of natural selection. This led him to develop the theory of sexual selection, which states that certain traits develop purely to ramp up an animal's chance of having sex. When two of these show-offs meet, there's a fight, and the winner gets to mate. Or the female has the say. Males try to attract her by appearing sexy, their conspicuous sexual attributes being proof of sturdy genes. Surely anyone investing that much in their appearance must be healthy and strong. But there's another explanation. According to the sexy son hypothesis, a female chooses attractive partners in order to produce a similarly attractive son, who in turn has better chances of reproducing. Here's how that might work. Some peacocks have genes that cause particularly large tail feathers to grow. And pea hens have a genetically determined preference for those large feathers. In mating, the characteristics are passed on to the couple's offspring. The process repeats itself and the genes for this preference and this trait become linked. This leads to extreme trait expression in a very short period of time. The tail continues to grow until the advantages and disadvantages associated with it balance each other out. As always, there are exceptions. Sometimes the females are more attractive. In hyenas, females are larger than males because they call the shots. In pipefish, the male carries the young and doesn't need to be a looker. Either way, without sex, the world would clearly be a far greyer place.

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