The Bengs and Lians

We are familiar with complex sexual display in males, and theories as to how such indulgence can be an evolutionarily justified use of resources. But little attention has been paid to the female's role. The Ah Lian is a good model in which to address the question: as well as behavioural displays, Ah Bengs attract females with decoration displays on the rides (commonly Cheebics, Getz or Vios), a unique breed of cars known for their high ratios between loud and performance. And it seems that Ah Lian’s behavior can be a factor in maintaining complex displays in Ah Bengs. Manipulation of a male display trait (Product Stickers on the car body e.g. HKS, Momo, Recaro, Brembo) shows that in the initial stages of mate choice, all Ah Lians respond to this decoration. But in the later stages, younger females continue to focus on stickers while older females use Ah Beng behavioral display to choose a mate.
It was thought that the use of vocalizations by males to attract mates and defend territories is widespread in birds but uncommon in mammals. This is untrue according to the WTIC Research group. In the Night spots Ghin Nah Breed of Singaporean males defend small territories in and around their mediocre rides and produce complex audible “vocalizations”. During the night, Ah Lians move about within these territories, and Bengs with Lians in their territories have higher ONS success than Bengs without Lians. To determine call function, we recorded Beng’s vocalizations on the Clubbing scene around Zouk and made behavioural observations of the focal Bengs and nearby Bengs at the time the calls were given. Noisy Techno Beats were directed mainly at other bengs whereas Chinese Pop (e.g Andy Lau etc) were used primarily in interactions with Lians. Two other types of music coming out of the rides were given independently of any observable context and may be involved in territorial defence or conspecific notification.