Daniel Blumstein

But males, it's a lot more difficult to get it.

And if you think about elephant seals, for example, you know, like one male elephant seal has all these females on the beach and, you know, fights them to death and has all the reproductive success, right?

So the most successful males have had hundreds of babies because they live more than two years

And they start screwing their kids.

Don't try that at home.

There is inbreeding that we can detect.

And it's not good for them.

But from a female's perspective, if there's only one male around, she has no choice.

Most of them make it, some don't.

So something's better than nothing in the game of fitness.

My favorite couple, mid-blood, I think he lived to 11, and he was this old, gray, grizzled guy.

I watched him emerge one April.

We had a blizzard, and that was his last year.

I never saw him after the blizzard.

And he was stiff and whatever.

But for a number of years, and he was one of the most successful males we've ever had.

And he used to have a whole section of the valley.

And by the end of his life, he had 1399, this grumpy female and his daughter.

He was a sweetheart.

Some males are just like rough and whatever.