Finches in a flap over poor-quality mates

LIKE many long-suffering wives, exasperated female finches feel the stress of being saddled with a poor-quality mate.

Monogamous Gouldian finches mate for life, but do not always end up with the most compatible partner. Scientists observed how some females were forced to take what they could get after all the high-quality males had been snapped up.

Tests showed these birds had stress hormone levels three to four times higher than the females with top quality partners.

Australian researchers, led by Dr Simon Griffith of Macquarie University, Sydney, said: "These females are making the best of a bad situation and are dissatisfied with their partner, although he does represent a better option than not breeding at all."