Courtship behaviour as a necessary precursor to successful mating. The role of courtship in species recognition.

Species all display different behaviour, this helps them to recognise each other.

This is beneficial to a species as they want to breed with each other so that they produce fertile offspring and pass on their genes.

There are other advantages of specific behaviour displayed during courtship:

• Show that they are capable of breeding: to optimise the chance of producing offspring.
• Form a pair bond: to successfully raise the offspring.
• Mate at an appropriate time: optimise the chance of fertilisation.