Female canary mate preferences: differential use of information from two types of male–male interaction

Amy, Mathieu; Monbureau, Marie; Durand, Clémentine; Gomez, Doris; Théry, Marc; Leboucher, Gérard

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2008.03.023

Cited by 39 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Choosing the optimal timing for displays is a straightforward way to minimize the costs and maximize the probability of mating success (Byrne 2008). Since overlap may obscure the fine temporal components of male calls (Schwartz 1987), females of some species including frogs and birds prefer non-overlapped signals (Amy et al 2008;Martínez-Rivera and Gerhardt 2008). Therefore, successful males typically produce a greater proportion of their total signaling time free from overlap with the signals of other chorus members compared to unsuccessful males (Schwartz et al 2001).…”

Section: Call Timing Appears Dependent On Working Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Because female frogs and birds prefer non-overlapped signals (Amy et al 2008;Martínez-Rivera and Gerhardt 2008) and the precedence effect is an inherent responsive property of the vertebrate auditory system (Zurek 1987;Litovsky et al 1999), based on our hypotheses we predicted that male music frogs would (1) avoid producing calls which overlapped the occurrence of either WN or conspecific calls, (2) be more likely to call back to HSA than LSA calls, (3) be more likely to produce calls shortly before a playback of conspecific calls since such behavior would provide a competitive advantage and (4) produce calls in response to LSA calls mainly when the ISIs were long, thereby allowing the males to conserve energy for competing more effectively against the HSA calls.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Male vocal competition is dynamic and strongly affected by social contexts in music frogs

et al. 2013

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Male-male vocal competition in anuran species is critical for mating success; however, it is also highly time-consuming, energetically demanding and likely to increase predation risks. Thus, we hypothesized that changes in the social context would cause male vocal competition to change in real time in order to minimize the costs and maximize the benefits of competition. To test this hypothesis, we assessed the effect of repeating playbacks of either white noise (WN) or male advertisement calls on male call production in the Emei music frog (Babina daunchina), a species in which males build mud-retuse burrows and call from within these nests. Previous studies have shown that calls produced from inside burrows are highly sexually attractive (HSA) to females while those produced outside nests are of low sexual attractiveness (LSA). Results showed that most subjects called responsively after the end of WN playbacks but before the onset of conspecific call stimuli although call numbers were similar, indicating that while males adjusted competitive patterns according to the biological significance of signals, their competitive motivation did not change. Furthermore, these data indicate that the frogs had evolved the ability of interval timing. Moreover, when the inter-stimulus interval (ISI) between playbacks was varied, the subjects preferentially competed with HSA calls when the ISI was short (\4 s) but responded equally to HSA and LSA calls if the ISI was long (C4 s), suggesting that males allocate competitive efforts depending on both the perceived sexual attractiveness of rivals and the time available for calling. Notably, approximately two-thirds of male calls occurred in response to HSA calls, a preference rate comparable to that previously found for females in phonotaxis experiments and consistent with the idea that the mechanisms underlying both the male's competitive responses to rivals and the female's preferences toward potential mates coevolved under the same selective pressure.

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Section: Call Timing Appears Dependent On Working Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Male vocal competition is dynamic and strongly affected by social contexts in music frogs

et al. 2013

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“…The behavioral differences between groups did not reach statistical significance due to the lack of response in some subjects although the percentages of active subjects tended to increase from the WN to the NS to the SS group (0.05<p<0.010). The lack of response in some subjects is probably explained by the fact that female canaries have been found to be more discriminative towards their mate’s songs during the last 3 days preceding the laying of the first egg when sexual motivation is high [32]; in this experiment, many females probably did not reach this acme of sexual responsiveness. Therefore these data are in agreement with and tend to confirm the discrimination capacity of these females and also the fact that the number of calls can probably be used as a behavioral index of this discrimination (see [25, 33]).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Male song quality modulates c-Fos expression in the auditory forebrain of the female canary

Monbureau

Barker

Leboucher

et al. 2015

Physiology & Behavior

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In canaries, specific phrases of male song (sexy songs, SS) that are difficult to produce are especially attractive for females. Females exposed to SS produce more copulation displays and deposit more testosterone into their eggs than females exposed to non-sexy songs (NS). Increased expression of the immediate early genes c-Fos or zenk (a.k.a. egr-1) has been observed in the auditory forebrain of female songbirds hearing attractive songs. C-Fos immunoreactive (Fos-ir) cell numbers were quantified here in the brain of female canaries that had been collected 30 min after they had been exposed for 60 min to the playback of SS or NS or control white noise. Fos-ir cell numbers increased in the caudomedial mesopallium (CMM) and caudomedial nidopallium (NCM) of SS birds as compared to controls. Song playback (pooled SS and NS) also tended to increase average Fos-ir cell numbers in the mediobasal hypothalamus (MBH) but this effect did not reach full statistical significance. At the individual level, Fos expression in CMM was correlated with its expression in NCM and in MBH but also with the frequency of calls that females produced in response to the playbacks. These data thus indicate that male songs of different qualities induce a differential metabolic activation of NCM and CMM. The correlation between activation of auditory regions and of the MBH might reflect the link between auditory stimulation and changes in behavior and reproductive physiology.

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“…We can assume that males have the opportunity to hear, and therefore eavesdrop on, male–male singing interactions. Previous studies on domestic canaries have demonstrated that males visually eavesdrop on male–male interactions (Amy & Leboucher 2007) and that females eavesdrop on visual as well as acoustic male–male interactions (Leboucher & Pallot 2004; Amy et al. 2008).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Female canaries are able to gather information from visual as well as acoustic male–male interactions (Leboucher & Pallot 2004; Amy et al.2008) but male canaries are only proven to visually eavesdrop on male–male food interactions (Amy & Leboucher 2007). The following experiment was thus designed to evaluate the ability of male canaries to obtain information from singing interactions and the effects of acoustic eavesdropping on subsequent interactions in male canaries in a controlled laboratory context.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Eavesdropping on Subsequent Signalling Behaviours in Male Canaries

Amy¹,

Leboucher²

2009

Ethology

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Signalling interactions could provide information for an observing third party. This behaviour has been labelled as eavesdropping. Studies on eavesdropping in birds have concerned only few species and have mainly been conducted in the wild. Our experiment was designed to evaluate the effects of eavesdropping on subsequent interactions in male canaries in a controlled laboratory context. The experiment had two stages: a presentation stage and a test stage. During the presentation stage, subjects heard three different interaction types: an alternating interaction, an overlapping interaction or two song sequences presented separately one after the other, i.e. without interaction. Then during the test stage, subjects were allowed to listen to the songs previously heard separately. We noted calls emitted by subjects during the two stages. During the presentation stage, responses of male canaries did not differ according to the type of interaction they could hear. During the test stage, we found a clear effect of the song status on the calls emitted by subjects. They emitted less calls during the songs of the winner than during all other songs. Surprisingly, subjects also produced intermediate responses by emitting fewer calls during the second song previously heard during the presentation phase, and during the song of the looser when compared to the three other songs. Our results show that male canaries obtain information on the relative threat from an overlapping interaction whereas an alternating interaction does not seem to provide any kind of relative information on singers’ status. In following encounters, the higher the potential threat of a singer was, the less the subjects emitted calls, probably to avoid the more serious rival. This inhibiting effect is discussed.

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Female canary mate preferences: differential use of information from two types of male–male interaction

Cited by 39 publications

References 52 publications

Male vocal competition is dynamic and strongly affected by social contexts in music frogs

Male vocal competition is dynamic and strongly affected by social contexts in music frogs

Male song quality modulates c-Fos expression in the auditory forebrain of the female canary

Effects of Eavesdropping on Subsequent Signalling Behaviours in Male Canaries

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