Heaven It's My Wife! Male Canaries Conceal Extra-Pair Courtships but Increase Aggressions When Their Mate Watches

Abstract

Many animals live in a communication network, an environment where individuals can obtain information about competitors or potential mates by observing interactions between conspecifics. In such an environment, interactants might benefit by changing their signalling behaviour in the presence of an audience. This audience effect seems widespread among species, has been observed during various types of interaction (e.g. intra-sexual vs. inter-sexual interaction) and varies according to the social context (e.g. gender, hierarchical or mating status of the audience). However, the way individuals might adapt their signalling behaviour to a combination of these factors remains poorly understood. To address this question, we studied how the presence of an audience affects the behaviour of male domestic canaries Serinus canaria during two types of interactions: (i) an extra-pair interaction and (ii) a male-male competition for food. Males were observed under three conditions: (a) in the absence of audience, (b) in the presence of their mate or (c) of a familiar female. Our results show that male domestic canaries minutely adapt their courting and agonistic behaviours to a combination of: (i) the type of interaction (extra-pair interaction/male-male competition), (ii) the social context (mate, familiar female or nobody in audience) and (iii) the behaviours of both the audience and the interactant. These results highlight the ability of animals to subtly adapt their behaviour to the social environment. This also raises questions about the cognitive foundations and evolution of these processes especially considering that canaries are known neither for having high cognitive abilities nor for being a typical example for the social intelligence hypothesis.

Low-amplitude songs produced by male dark-eyed juncos (Junco hyemalis) differ when sung during intra- and inter-sexual interactions

“…As juncos are socially monogamous and regularly engage in extra-pair behavior (Gerlach et al, 2011), it seems unlikely that males would respond aggressively to a potential extra-pair mate during the breeding season. One context in which a male might be expected to exhibit aggressive behavior towards a female conspecific is in the presence of his social mate (e.g., Ung et al, 2011). Contrary to this prediction, males produced slow SRS towards a female conspecific in both the presence and absence of their social mate in each of our experiments.…”

Test of the Deception Hypothesis in Atlantic Mollies Poecilia mexicana—Does the Audience Copy a Pretended Mate Choice of Others?

“…The audience effect is a wide-spread phenomenon and has been studied in various contexts (e.g., feeding [ 77 ], food caching [ 78 ], predator detection [ 79 ], and mate choice [ 80 ]). The audience effect has been studied in various taxa (insects [ 81 , 82 ], birds [ 83 , 84 , 85 , 86 , 87 , 88 ], mammals [ 78 , 79 , 89 , 90 , 91 , 92 ]), especially in fish: e.g., in the fighting fish Betta splendens [ 93 , 94 , 95 ], in the three-spine stickleback G. aculeatus [ 96 ], in the guppy P. reticulata [ 64 , 80 ], in the sailfin molly P. latipinna [ 97 , 98 ], and in the Atlantic molly P. mexicana [ 99 , 100 , 101 ].…”

Sex-Specific Audience Effect in the Context of Mate Choice in Zebra Finches

“…The audience is not taking part in the interaction, but its presence is recognized by the interacting individuals. This audience effect has been intensively investigated in Siamese fighting fish ( Betta splendens ) (e.g., [ 20 , 21 , 22 ]) and the livebearing Poeciliidae (e.g., [ 7 , 23 , 24 , 25 ]), and evidence for audience effects has also been found in insects (e.g., [ 26 , 27 ]), mammals (e.g., [ 28 , 29 , 30 ]) and birds (e.g., [ 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 ]).…”

“…Baltz and Clark [ 32 ] found that male budgerigars ( Melopsittacus undulates ) limited their extra-pair courtship to times when their mates could not overserve them. Likewise, male canaries ( Serinus canaria ) reduced their extra-pair courtship in the presence of their partner [ 33 ]. Hoi and Griggio [ 35 ] found that male and female bearded reedlings ( Panurus biarmicus ) adjust their pair-bond investment mainly in response to the presence or absence of a competitor.…”