| No, we're not talking about how to pick up women using a dog. Well, only sort of. Studying the biological basis for sexual behavior can give a better understanding of game theory, evolution, and our own society -- not to mention the thrill (for some of us) of using big words to describe something naughty. So while human strategies count, I'm hoping to node a lot of interesting exampes from our fellow flora and fauna.
Some methods, like adaptive strategies r and K, are part of the life cycle of all members of a species. Others develop when males and females of a population take on different strategies to optimize their individual reproductive success. With a generous helping of cross-species generalizations, we can lay down a table of challenges and solutions for those of us who enjoy combining our genes with others' (I'll be adding entries and noding them often):
Challenges:
(female)
- selecting desirable genetic material for your offspring
- garnering additional resources for yourself during pregnancy and for your young afterwards
- becoming pregnant only when reproduction is practical
(male)
- Optimizing quality / quantity of mating potentials
- Sabotaging the mating potentials of other males
(both)
- avoiding inbreeding
- identifying, supporting, and tolerating only your own kin
- protecting your offspring from competitive strategies of other parents
Strategies: | 
