Breeding experience and breeding efficiency in the ring dove

Role of mate's previous experience in ring dove hormone-induced incubation.

“…The activities of the mate, in turn, alter the dove's own reactions to the nest and eggs. Moreover, Lehrman and Wortis (1967) reported that the previous breeding experience of both the male and the female contribute to the increase in breeding efficiency exhibited between the first and second reproductive cycles of ring doves. Thus, the 468 behavior of a reproductively experienced male or female can affect the behavior of its naive mate to the extent that the pair's efficiency in incubation and care of young is equivalent to that of reproductively experienced pairs.…”

Contributions of reproductive experience to observation-maintained crop growth and incubation in male and female ring doves

“…The increased range of effective stimuli in experienced doves also produces some redundancy in the stimulus support of parental condition, which may contribute to successful hatching and feeding of young by enabling doves to maintain a parental state under suboptimal natural conditions where the regular daily pattern of incubation may be disrupted. Finally, the fact that these experiential effects carry over between cycles may contribute to the increased efficiency and greater reproductive success that have been reported in previously experienced doves (Lehrman & Wortis 1967;Michel, in press).…”

Contribution of nesting experience to progesterone-induced incubation in ring doves (Streptopelia risoria).

“…Apparently, settling in a nest, nest-site soliciting in a nest, and/or forming an attachment to a nesting place prepare the dove's nervous system, perhaps in combination with progesterone, to be responsive to subsequent exogenous or endogenous progesterone in a manner that leads to the rapid expression of incubation. The process by which nesting experience produces this effect is unknown, but it is conceivable that the process operates within a breeding cycle as well as between cycles (Lehrman & Wortis, 1967).…”