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This story on topi is a fascinating bit of insight into polygynous mating systems.

Topi are large African antelope that practice a form of “lek polygyny.” That is, males establish small territories distinct from the rest of the herd during a highly synchronized breeding season. The males jostle and spar with each other continuously for days, each competing for access to the most choice locations in the interior and access to females. The males apparently neither eat nor drink during this time, lest they lose their hard-won spot, and severely exhaust themselves in the process. There is an amazing bit of footage on this in Attenborough’s “Life of Mammals” DVD in which some of the topi males become so exhausted during the mating season that they fall prey to marauding hyenas.

This recent story describes how males fight each other for access to females, but in an odd twist, some males end up fighting females for access to females! It seems that males remember those females with whom they have mated and, if a previously mated female comes back for more, the male is likely to drive her away - if she potentially distracts him from courting a new female, i.e., one to which he has not bred.

This is new ground - as far as I am aware - although there is literature relating to males being more sexually interested in multiple mates than in mating with the same individual multiple times. The aggressive displacement of females coming back for more is really unusual.

Kudos to the lead researcher Jakob Bro-Jorgensen for bringing this work to light!