CineFinch: An animated female zebra finch for studying courtship interactions

Abstract

Dummies, videos and computer animations have been used extensively in animal behaviour to study simple social interactions. These methods allow complete control of one interacting animal, making it possible to test hypotheses about the significance and relevance of different elements of animal displays. Recent studies have demonstrated the potential of videos and interactive displays for studying more complex courtship interactions in the zebra finch, a well-studied songbird. Here, we extended these techniques by developing an animated female zebra finch and showed that ~40% of male zebra finches (n=5/12) sing to this animation. To study real-time social interactions, we developed two possible methods for closed loop control of animations; (1) an arduino based system to initiate videos/animations based on perch hops and (2) a video game engine based system to change animations. Overall, our results provide an important tool for understanding the dynamics of complex social interactions during courtship.