Evidence for Stabilizing and Apostatic Selection by Wild Blackbirds

• DOI: 10.1038/237348a0
• Publication Date: 2005-08-02T08:13:19Z
• Authors: JOHN A. ALLEN
• Keywords: Stabilizing selection

When predators concentrate on rare varieties of a prey species, as previous work has suggested1–4, there is a tendency towards the elimination of variability. This type of selection is stabilizing5. When predators choose the most common varieties, the selection is apostatic6 and may result in the maintenance of variability6–9. My results (ref. 10 and in preparation) with wild blackbirds (Turdus merula L.) and artificial prey suggest that selection may be stabilizing or apostatic according to the density of the prey.