Researchers studying the European common lizard (Zootoca
vivipara, formerly Lacerta vivipara) have
learned of a three-part mating strategy. Different members of
the species have disticutly different mating strategies.
Additionally, the colors of the bellies are correlated with
the mating strategy employed by the individual. (This was
mentioned recently at
href="http://scienceblogs.com/bushwells/2007/10/boffo_science_headlines.php">Joan
Bushwell's Chimpanzee Refuge.)
The scientists think that their findings could teach us something about
human sexuality. I don't know about that, but I do know that
it can teach us something about US politicians.
...
Some lizards use a brute-force approach. Those
lizards tend to have orange bellies. Some use deception; they
tend to have yellow bellies. Others band together and use
cooperation. They have white bellies.
This is explained in a Live Science article:
href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21132536/">Lizard
love triangles exposed!
Researchers speculate rock-paper-scissors games might be
commonplace
By Charles Q. Choisrc="http://msnbcmedia1.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Sources/Art/sourceLiveScience.gif,standard.jpg"
border="0" hspace="0" vspace="0">
Updated: 10:37 a.m. MT Oct 4, 2007
A three-way sex struggle resembling the game
rock-paper-scissors may have existed for 175 million years or more in
lizards, research now suggests.
The reptilian triads may be far more common than previously recognized
— and may even shape the way humans behave, the scientists
said...
Orange-bellied males are brutes that invade other lizards' territories
to mate with any female they can hold. But while they're gone,
yellow-bellied males sneak deceptively onto the vacant territory and
mate with undefended females. White-bellied males guard their mates
closely and ally with other white-bellied lizards to keep the yellows
at bay. Thus the analogy to rock-paper-scissors — orange
force defeats white cooperation, cooperation defeats yellow deception
and deception defeats force...
There are some interesting points here. It turns out that no
one strategy is clearly best. There is a dynamic cycle that
affects the relative preponderance of the three varieties.
The tendency is for one strategy to predominate for 1-2
years, but then the natural vulnerability associated with that strategy
loses its effectiveness as others learn to exploit the vulnerability.
Then another strategy will prevail for 1-2 years.
In practice, this game of sex leads to a
steady cycling of which lizard color type is prevalent every four to
eight years. For instance, orange aggressors may be dominant for a year
or two, followed by yellow deceivers, succeeded by white cooperators
and then back to orange as the cycle starts anew.
There are interesting lessons here, for students of evolution and
animal behavior. And who knows, we might learn something
about human sexual behavior along the way. But I still think the more
important lesson is the application to politics.
When George W. Bush was first elected, he clearly was a yellow-bellied
deceiver: the "uniter not a divider, education president" line.
He then transformed into an orange-bellied aggressor.
What this tells us, is that now, the time is right for a cooperator.
Which of the candidates best fits that bill?
Maybe in the next debates, we should have them all lift up their shirts
to show us what they are made of.
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More like this
The more well studied example is the Common Side-Blotched Lizard, which is exactly as this one apparently, except that cooperators are blue instead of white.
I wrote about them to try to explain different mating strategies in humans, particularly why pretty boys do well (they're like the yellow ones):
http://www.gnxp.com/blog/2007/09/popularity-of-pretty-boys-and-frequenc…
There are links in that post to more extensive writing on the Common lizard. It's really fascinating stuff.