NATURE | What Females Want and Males Will Do Part One | PBS

Mating is a high stakes proposition and there's no telling what females want and males will do. NATURE’s new miniseries, “What Females Want and Males Will Do,” is about the evolution of sexual strategies and what makes certain species winners and losers in the animal mating game. Courtship drives evolution by controlling whose genes are passed on to the next generation, and intense competition gives rise to a wide array of dazzling displays and impressive ornamentation. In Part One, “What Females Want,” find out how in the animal world females often call the shots. NATURE follows biologist Chadden Hunter, PhD, as he observes a troop of geladas, close cousins of baboons. He found that in gelada society the females make all the decisions about mating, even though the males are twice their size. You'll also see female barn swallows that choose a male by the color of his chest and encounter a robotic sage grouse that is helping researchers learn about this species' elaborate courtship displays. Part of the 26th season of the Peabody and Emmy award-winning series produced by Thirteen/WNET New York for PBS, “What Females Want and Males Will Do” premieres over two Sundays, April 6 and 13, at 8 p.m. (check local listings). Major support provided by Canon U.S.A. Inc., Toyota, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. For more information, visit http://www.pbs.org/nature