Subject: why females are larger?
Date: Jun 10 23:55:15 1999
From: Roger Craik - rcraik at home.com




"William H. Lawrence" wrote:

> >sorry lost the end of original message now to complete it
>
> >>Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 20:34:06 -0700
> >>I was involved with avian predator prey relationship study during the mid
> >fortys in the vicinty of Ann Arbor. This question was discussed in some
> >detail and a combination of 2 plausible explanations at the time seem to be
> that the
> >male/female size difference reduced the hunting competition between the sexs
> >in size of prey used to feed the young. There is also the consideration
> that the female requires a greater resource base to produce her viable set
> of eggs. Again size differences between sexes reduces hunting competition.
> This maybe simple simplistic thinking. Bill
> >
> >

How about the larger size of one plus the greater agility of the other combining
to broaden the spectrum of prey species available to feed the young??

Roger Craik