We interview Matt Ridley, author of 'Birds, Sex and Beauty: The Extraordinary Implications of Charles Darwin’s Strangest Ideas'
Ridley explains science in a way that's intriguing and exciting. “It's fabulously and fantastically written from page one to page the last," says bookworm John Maytham.
John Maytham, standing in for CapeTalk's Lester Kiewit, speaks with Matt Ridley, science writer, author, journalist and businessman, about his latest book, Birds, Sex and Beauty.
Listen below:
In Birds, Sex and Beauty: The Extraordinary Implications of Charles Darwin’s Strangest Idea, Ridley explores the provocative world of sexual selection — a concept Darwin proposed but which remains hotly debated.
Darwin’s theory suggests that in many bird species, females choose mates not for their survival skills, but for their looks: bright feathers, long tails, and elaborate dances. These traits, while potentially harmful in terms of survival, may actually improve an individual's chances of reproducing. Why? Because beauty attracts.
This contrasts with Alfred Russel Wallace’s view that such traits are signals of good genes or survival fitness. Ridley leans toward Darwin, arguing that attraction can become a self-reinforcing loop — females choose beautiful males, and their offspring inherit both the beauty and the preference for it.
The big question: Is this simply part of natural selection, or is sexual selection a distinct evolutionary force? And can beauty exist for its own sake?
By studying birds, Ridley suggests, we gain insight into our own human experience of beauty, where aesthetics, not just function, can shape evolution. In the world of courtship, nature isn’t always practical. Sometimes, it’s just dazzling.
Ridley explains some of his observations...
"Males tend to fight over females, and females accepting that they've been fought over is much more common in mammals. In birds... it's obvious when you watch them that the individual that has the decision-making power over who gets to mate is the female, not the male... this is partly because birds don't have penises."
- Matt Ridley, Author - Birds, Sex and Beauty: The Extraordinary Implications of Charles Darwin’s Strangest Idea
Ridley explains his perspective on the representation of evolution and how bird behaviour might mirror human behaviour.
"It gives us a glimpse into a world where evolution is not just about making creatures capable of surviving and thriving, it's a world of fun, a world where evolution can be creative and produce bizarre results as well as practical results."
- Matt Ridley, Author - Birds, Sex and Beauty: The Extraordinary Implications of Charles Darwin’s Strangest Idea
"What we do with our brains... the ability to tell jokes, to write poems, sing... are features of our behaviour that do seem to play a part in seduction, in both sexes. There are many species of birds where both sexes are interested in making sure that the other is brightly coloured. I think the bright colours in our [humans] case might be our mental apparatus. It's an intriguing theory... this might be the reason we ended up with big brains in the first place... to impress each other, to get a good mate, you have to have a decent-sized brain to show off to each other. That's a possibility, and so far, we haven't worked out how to test that theory."
- Matt Ridley, Author - Birds, Sex and Beauty: The Extraordinary Implications of Charles Darwin’s Strangest Idea
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