What we find is when you take into account seasonal changes in the population, it creates a scenario where there are two rounds of mate choice. A female that is choosing early has a different pool of available mates to choose from.

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We've known awhile that in many species, females prefer the most extravagant and flashy males. We've also known that when individuals choose mates that are highly related to them, it's often a bad thing, leading to offspring of poor quality.

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One of the major implications is that it shows us how these two processes, both preference for elaborate mates and preference for genetically complementary mates, can both occur in a population. It highlights the importance of taking into account the environment in which the animals are behaving.

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What's unique about this study is because we have such detailed information on the population, we could say on any given date who was available to any given female and how that affected how she chose.

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