Freedom to choose: unconstrained mate-searching behaviour by female fallow deer (Dama dama)

Individuals can increase their fitness by searching for mates of an appropriate quality. We here report the results of a five-year study on the behaviour of peri-estrous female fallow deer to document examples of apparent mate-searching and the context in which it occurs. Using direct observation of 266 tagged does we collected spatial and behavioural data of does and the bucks with which they were seen, together with the identity of their mate. Movement of does was relatively unconstrained by bucks. Buck-switching by does was mostly due to apparently unprovoked movements by the does. Approximately half of the does were recorded with more than one buck on the day they mated. Mobile does encountered bucks at rates between 0.76 and 1.85 per hour and were more likely to transfer to a reproductively successful buck than an unsuccessful one. Does of all ages were equally likely to be recorded in multiple or in single consortships with no tendency for does to fall into the same category in two or more years. We suggest that the behaviour of fallow does in this population is consistent with the use of mate-searching by a variable proportion of the population as a condition-dependent