In most animal species, the male is the most beautiful one. Does that mean animals can recognize beauty?

Question

If they couldn't, then what would be the purpose of making the male more beautiful than the female?

Answer 1

Serena is correct but to add to her answer, it tells the female that he is so healthy he can afford to waste much of his energy keeping this beutiful lustrous plumage (in the case of the peacock) or whatever.  It shows the female that he is not sickly and fighting to survive so his genes would be good to add to her own.

Answer 2

Yes, basically it is true. But the male's purpose is to show how much bigger and stronger he is than the others. When you look at a peacock for example, or the birds of paradise, the males all want to attract a female, but they don't use the pretty colours as much as the extending plummage.

The male is only more beautiful and larger in hope's of catching the female's eye. The female is often natural colours, with little plummage. Look at the mallard duck. The male is deep browns and green with blue, but the female is just dull browns and creams. BUT, that serves as the most important purpose, for these colours help camoflauge when the female is at her nest.

Answer 3

Male animals are often the ones responsible for attracting mates. Thus, they will have additional plumage, brighter coloring, more dramatic fur, etc etc. So yes, you could say that animals recognize beauty. Whether they consider it beautiful or just attention-getting is a question that cannot be answered.

Answer 4

The male is more eye-catching; we interpret that as beautiful.  This is not actually true in most species, as in most species the male and female look pretty much alike.  

But in those sexually dimorphic species, the female is usually the one to stay with the young and care for them until they are old enough to take care of themselves.  Therefore she is camouflaged to keep her and the young safer from predators.  The showy male can attack intruders and draw attention away from his family.  

There is at least one species of duck in which the male sits on the eggs and raises the ducklings, while the female goes on to start another family with another male.  In this species, the male is camouflaged and the female is showy.