Female canary mate preferences: differential use of information from two types of male–male interaction
Section snippets
General method
We used 48 females and 24 males for these two experiments: 24 females for the first and 24 different females and 24 males for the second. Each experiment had two stages: during the initial stage, we allowed females either to hear (or not) or to monitor visually (or not) a male–male interaction (an acoustic interaction in experiment 1 and a physical interaction in experiment 2). In the second stage, we measured female preferences towards the male songs (experiment 1) or the males observed during
Experiment 1: females hear acoustic male–male interactions
We designed our experiment to evaluate female canaries' preferences towards male songs previously heard in simulated interactions, across their reproductive cycle. Testing started after the period of exposure to the interactions (two times a day for 5 days) and ended the day the female laid its last egg. We measured preferences by the number of CSDs subsequently elicited by an individual male song.
Females of the experimental group heard a simulated singing interaction during which one song
Experiment 2: females observe male–male visual interactions
We observed female canary preferences towards males that they had previously observed in a dyadic competition for extra food. In each competition there was a winner and a loser. We allowed females of the experimental group to monitor a competition for extra food between two males for 15 min, and consequently, they could obtain information about the hierarchical relationship between the two males. We then placed the females in a choice apparatus with both males.
Females of the control group did
General discussion
In two experiments we investigated how female domestic canaries use the information gathered during male–male interactions to direct their sexual preferences, either by listening or visually attending to a male–male interaction. When females heard male–male singing interactions, they showed a preference towards the overlapping (winning) song rather than towards the overlapped (losing) song, with a variation of preferences across their cycle. This variation of female preferences is adaptive as
Acknowledgments
M.A. is supported by the French Ministry of National Education. We especially thank F. Rochette and P. Lenouvel for their help with measuring male characteristics, S.-J. Vick for her help with improving the English of the manuscript and Ben Hatchwell and three anonymous referees for their very helpful comments on the manuscript.
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Cited by (35)
Anyone listening? No evidence for eavesdropping on male singing interactions in the great tit, Parus major
2021, Animal BehaviourCitation Excerpt :The controversy, in part, may stem from different authors using the term ‘aggressive’ in different ways: song overlapping might not be used as an aggressive signal predicting attack during close-range conflicts but instead could be more relevant at an earlier level of escalation such as during long-distance interactions or when no other information is available (Naguib et al., 2011). Regardless of whether song overlap and persistence indicate a more threatening intruder in all contexts, there is ample evidence that females eavesdrop on male vocal interactions and use information gained by eavesdropping to (re)assess the quality of males relative to others and alter their reproductive decisions accordingly (Amy et al., 2008; Garcia-Fernandez et al., 2010; Mennill et al., 2002; Otter et al., 1999). However, we found no evidence that female great tits changed their foraying behaviour into other territories or their investment in clutches and brood attendance.
Countersinging in birds
2021, Advances in the Study of BehaviorCitation Excerpt :Female canaries were exposed to simulated countersinging and then subjected to solo playback of the virtual interactants' songs. The females gave more copulation solicitation displays in response to the overlapping songs than the overlapped songs, but the addition of attractive trill syllables eliminated the effect of song overlapping on female preference (Amy et al., 2008; Leboucher & Pallot, 2004). In a separate experiment, canaries heard simulated countersinging in which one simulated male consistently overlapped the other, and were then exposed to the songs of one of the simulated males (Garcia-Fernandez, Amy, Lacroix, Malacarne, & Leboucher, 2010).
Communication in Animal Social Networks: A Missing Link?
2017, Advances in the Study of BehaviorVocal production and playback of altered song do not affect ZENK expression in black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus)
2016, Behavioural Brain ResearchCitation Excerpt :Among male songbirds, it is a key aspect of territorial defense against male conspecifics and plays a role in aggressive interactions between rival males [48,44]. In the case of females, male song is used as an indicator of the singer's quality, reflecting factors such as age and dominance, and is thus used in mate selection (e.g., [1,12]). Black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) are a typical temperate songbird, where male song operates in both territory defense and mate choice [30].
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D. Gomez and M. Théry are at the Département d'Ecologie et Gestion de la Biodiversité, CNRS UMR 7179, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, 4 avenue du Petit Château, 91800 Brunoy, France.