Female canaries invest more in response to an exaggerated male trait

Garcia-Fernandez, Violaine; Draganoiu, Tudor Ion; Ung, Davy; Lacroix, André; Malacarne, Giorgio; Leboucher, Gérard

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2013.01.007

Cited by 16 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…Previous studies with domestic canaries showed that female canaries could adjust egg size (Garcia‐Fernandez et al., ; Leitner, Marshall, Leisler, & Catchpole, ), yolk weight (Garcia‐Fernandez et al., ), or testosterone yolk concentration (Gil et al., ; Tanvez et al., ) to song attractiveness. However, neither of these studies has reported a difference regarding the clutch size.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, females laid larger clutches when exposed to conspecific song with big versus small repertoire size (Kroodsma, ). In a different study, females increased egg size when exposed to supernormal songs maximizing syllable rate and frequency bandwidth (Garcia‐Fernandez et al., ), although this may not be typical for a species with biparental care. Indeed, a recent review paper confirms increased female reproductive investment when paired to attractive males and also reveals a tendency for females of species with biparental care to increase clutch size but not egg size in response to their mates’ attractiveness (Horváthová et al., ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Negative impact of urban noise on sexual receptivity and clutch size in female domestic canaries

et al. 2017

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In oscines, male song stimulates female reproduction and females are known to adjust both their sexual preferences and their maternal investment according to song quality.Female domestic canaries are especially responsive to wide frequency bandwidth (4 kHz) male songs emitted with a high-repetition syllable rate and low minimal frequencies (1 kHz). We previously showed that low-frequency urban noise decreases female sexual responsiveness for these low-frequency songs (1-5 kHz) through auditory masking. Based on the differential allocation hypothesis, we predicted that urban noise exposure will equally affect female maternal investment. Using a crossover design, we broadcast low-frequency songs to females either in an overlapping noise condition or in an alternating noise condition. Females decreased both their sexual responsiveness and their clutch size in the overlapping noise treatment relative to the alternative noise treatment. No differences were found concerning egg size or egg composition (yolk and albumen mass, testosterone concentration). Due to our experimental design, we can exclude a general impact of noisy conditions and thereby provide evidence for a detrimental effect through masking on avian courtship and reproductive output. These results suggest that noisy conditions may also affect avian communication in outdoor conditions, which may partly explain field reports on noisedependent breeding success and reduced breeding densities at noisy sites. K E Y W O R D Santhropogenic noise, birdsong, clutch size, domestic canary, maternal investment

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Negative impact of urban noise on sexual receptivity and clutch size in female domestic canaries

et al. 2017

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“…Several studies also found an effect of male attractiveness on egg features, for example, egg volume (Uller et al 2005;Mcfarlane et al 2010), egg mass (Cunningham and Russell 2000;Gilbert et al 2006;Bonato et al 2009;Giraudeau et al 2011), egg size (Horv athov a et al 2012, yolk mass (Reme s 2011), testosterone concentration (Gil et al 2006;Loyau et al 2007;Safran et al 2008;Garcia-Fernandez et al 2010;Loyau and Lacroix 2010), lysozyme (D'Alba et al 2010;Giraudeau et al 2011), carotenoids (Saino et al 2002c;Hargitai et al 2008), and corticosterone (Pike and Petrie 2005). However, only a few studies we are aware of, found a relationship between-song characteristics and egg investment, mainly in relation to clutch size, egg, or egg yolk volume (Holvec and Riebel 2010;Garcia-Fernandez et al 2013;Okanoya and Soma 2013) or some in egg compounds, in particular egg yolk testosterone (Gil et al 2004;Garcia-Fernandez et al 2010). Half of these studies have been looking on song production rather than song structure.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do females invest more into eggs when males sing more attractively? Postmating sexual selection strategies in a monogamous reed passerine

Krištofík

Darolová

Majtán

et al. 2014

Ecology and Evolution

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Maternal investment can play an important role for offspring fitness, especially in birds, as females have to provide their eggs with all the necessary nutrients for the development of the embryo. It is known that this type of maternal investment can be influenced by the quality of the male partner. In this study, we first verify that male song is important in the mate choice of female Eurasian reed warblers, as males mate faster when their singing is more complex. Furthermore, female egg investment varies in relation to male song characteristics. Interestingly, clutch size, egg weight, or size, which can be considered as an high-cost investment, is not influenced by male song characteristics, whereas comparably low-cost investment types like investment into diverse egg components are adjusted to male song characteristics. In line with this, our results suggest that female allocation rules depend on investment type as well as song characteristics. For example, egg white lysozyme is positively correlated with male song complexity. In contrast, a negative correlation exists between-song speed and syllable repetitiveness and egg yolk weight as well as egg yolk testosterone concentration. Thus, our results suggest that female egg investment is related to male song performance in several aspects, but female investment patterns regarding various egg compounds are not simply correlated.

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“…We used the discrete color variants present in the domestic canary to test female preference for carotenoid-based coloration, and we used broadcast of artificially constructed songs to test preferences relative to male song quality. Specifically, our comparisons allowed us to (1) establish whether these lines of canaries demonstrate the same strong preferences for song that have been described in other lines; (2) test if change in plumage color is tightly linked to change in preference such that females prefer males of their own type; and, (3) test if females show preference for a supernormal male trait (red coloration), as they appear to in song (Garcia-Fernandez et al, 2013), or if they may instead have retained preference for an ancestral plumage phenotype. These first tests of female canary mate choice for male plumage coloration are a step toward better understanding how strong selection on a male trait may shape the associated preference.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Loss of Carotenoid Plumage Coloration Is Associated With Loss of Choice for Coloration in Domestic Canaries

Koch

Hill

2019

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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Understanding the evolution of mating display traits and preferences for them is a major aim of behavioral and evolutionary ecology. However, isolating the specific traits used as mate choice criteria and the possible genetic underpinnings of both trait and preference has proven difficult, particularly in natural systems offering little experimental control over key variables. In this study, we used discrete color morphs of otherwise phenotypically identical domestic canaries (Serinus canaria) in a mate choice apparatus to test whether breeding-condition female canaries show preference for males of varying color phenotypes (yellow, white, red, or wild-type green), using spatial association as a proxy for choice. We also used synthesized vocal recordings to examine whether females in our population exhibited mate choice for song characteristics, as has been demonstrated in this species. Contrary to previous study, we found that neither white nor yellow females in our colony showed any preference for males associated with songs of differing quality, and yellow females also did not prefer supernormal red or wild-type green males over yellow males. However, yellow-but not white-females demonstrated a preference to associate with yellow males over white males. We hypothesize that preference for brightly colored mates is ancestral in domestic canaries, but that strong artificial selection for white females to reproduce successfully with white males has eliminated the preference for color (along with color itself) in the white canaries.

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Female canaries invest more in response to an exaggerated male trait

Cited by 16 publications

References 48 publications

Negative impact of urban noise on sexual receptivity and clutch size in female domestic canaries

Negative impact of urban noise on sexual receptivity and clutch size in female domestic canaries

Do females invest more into eggs when males sing more attractively? Postmating sexual selection strategies in a monogamous reed passerine

Loss of Carotenoid Plumage Coloration Is Associated With Loss of Choice for Coloration in Domestic Canaries

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