Male Great Tits (Parus major) adjust dear enemy effect expression in different breeding stages

Jin, Longru; Liang, Jingnan; Fan, Qianxi; Yu, Jiangping; Sun, Keping; Wang, Haitao

doi:10.1007/s10336-020-01815-3

Cited by 16 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…The dear enemy effect is well-documented across vertebrate species, and is thought to lessen the costs of territorial defense (Tumulty, 2018). Alternatively, marking may be influenced by a “nasty neighbor” effect (Christensen & Radford, 2018; Goll et al, 2017; Jin et al, 2021; Müller & Manser, 2007), where territorial males increase their signaling effort toward familiar neighbors. Given the high costs and depletable nature of urine marks, males should dynamically modulate signal allocation as the landscape is updated with new social information.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamic changes to signal allocation rules in response to variable social environments in house mice

Miller

Hillock

Yang

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Male house mice use metabolically costly urine marks in intrasexual competition and mate attraction. Given the high costs of signaling and the depletable nature of urine reserves, males should dynamically modulate signal allocation as the social landscape is updated with new information. We investigate which aspects of male urine marking behavior are static or dynamic in light of changing social environments. To do this, we use thermal imaging to capture spatiotemporal data of urine deposition decisions. This novel method reveals fine-scale variation in urinary motor patterns in response to competition and social odors. Males demonstrate striking winner-loser effects in both the total allocation effort and temporal dynamics of scent marking. We find that competitive experience primes key temporal features of signal allocation and modulates responses to familiar and unfamiliar male scents. Males adjust their signaling effort, mark latency, and scent mark rhythm, depending on the scent identities present in the environment. Winners dramatically increase marking effort toward unfamiliar compared to familiar male scent, consistent with a 'dear enemy' effect. Losers, in contrast, greatly reduce marking to unfamiliar scent but increase marking effort to the scent of their familiar rival, consistent with a 'nasty neighbor' effect. Counter to the high lability of many features, the initial signal investment pattern influences allocation decisions days later, revealing the possibility of alternative scent mark strategies among competitive males. Thus, different features of urine mark signal allocation vary in responsiveness to fluctuating social landscapes, suggesting there are multiple distinct behavioral modules underlying marking behavior.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamic changes to signal allocation rules in response to variable social environments in house mice

Miller

Hillock

Yang

et al. 2022

Preprint

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“…Stimuli were broadcast as .wav files from an EasyAcc X02s speaker mounted on a tripod at approximately 1 m height, at a sound-pressure level of 90 dB (A) measured at 1 m using an Extech 407730 sound level meter. Great tit males respond readily to playback of song exemplars by exhibiting territorial behaviour (Rivera-Gutierrez et al 2015; Snijders et al 2017; Jin et al 2021).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Due to logistical constraints of running experiments across multiple field sites with respect to the timing of nest checks, seven individuals were tested after the last egg was laid at the nest, including three individuals for which incubation was already started at the nest (the latest start date of the first repetition of the playback trials was 4 days into incubation). To control for the timing of the playback with respect to the breeding cycle (Petrinovich et al 1976; Mace 1987; Jin et al 2021), we included the date of the first playback trial relative to the first egg date as a variable in analyses (see below).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Third, we estimated the repeatability of several dear enemy behaviour measures to determine if individuals differed intrinsically in these behaviours. We also explored the extent to which the expression of these dear enemy behaviour measures was context dependent, for example due to phenology, which is related to overall levels of nest defence (Hyman 2005; Jin et al 2021), and the repetition rate of songs during the playback, which affects the rate of habituation towards repeated stimuli (Thompson et al 1973). Finally, we tested whether there was any evidence for selection or any reproductive benefits of dear enemy behaviour in a number of ways: A) controlling for paternity, we tested the prediction of positive selection on the tendency to perform dear enemy behaviour, that is, that individuals that rapidly reduced their response to neighbours should fare better for a variety of life history traits that are good indicators of reproductive fitness and recruitment to the breeding population in the great tit (Tinbergen and Boerlijst 1990), in particular clutch size, the number of offspring fledged, and average offspring mass; B) We repeated these analyses including all nestlings (including extra-pair) to test for evidence of any benefits of the tendency to perform dear enemy behaviour at the nest, irrespective of paternity; C) We examined if there was any relationship between observed levels of extra-pair paternity at the social nest and the tendency to perform dear enemy behaviour.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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No reproductive fitness benefits of dear enemy behaviour in a territorial songbird

Reichert

Davidson

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Territorial animals often exhibit the dear enemy effect, in which individuals respond less aggressively to neighbours than to other individuals. The dear enemy effect is hypothesized to be adaptive by reducing unnecessary aggressive interactions with individuals that are not a threat to territory ownership. A key prediction of this hypothesis, that individual fitness will be affected by variation in the speed and extent to which individuals reduce their aggression towards neighbours relative to strangers, has never been tested. We used a series of song playbacks to measure the change in response of male great tits on their breeding territories to a simulated establishment of a neighbour on an adjacent territory. Males reduced their approach to the speaker and sang fewer songs on later repetitions of the playback trials, consistent with a dear enemy effect through habituation learning. However, not all males discriminated between the neighbour and stranger playbacks at the end of the series of trials, and there was evidence that individuals consistently differed from one another in performing this discrimination. We monitored nests and analysed offspring paternity to determine male reproductive success. Unexpectedly, individuals that exhibited dear enemy behaviour towards the simulated neighbour did not have higher reproductive success, and in fact one measure, total offspring biomass, was lower for individuals that showed the dear enemy effect. Although the general capability to recognize neighbours is most likely adaptive, it seems that individuals who decrease their responsiveness to familiar neighbours too quickly may gain no advantage or even be at a disadvantage.

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“…More generally, STI can be used to assess whether a species is territorial and defends a territory. STIs have also been used in studying the "dear enemy" hypothesis, where territory holders respond stronger to the STI of a stranger rather than to a well-known neighbor [7]. In addition, Birds 2020, 1 STIs showed a decline of the reaction during the breeding season [6], but also a change in the response in relation to breeding stages [7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Territorial Responses of Nuthatches Sitta europaea—Evaluation of a Robot Model in a Simulated Territorial Intrusion

Randler

2020

Birds

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In birds, aggressive behavior can be elicited in the field with a simulated territory intrusion (STI). Here, we compared four different STI methods in nuthatches in the non-breeding season: playback only, playback combined with an inactive wooden model mounted on a robot device, playback and an active model mounted on a robot device, and playback with the robot device only. In the control treatment, birds were not exposed to STI. Experiments were carried out in 12 territories. Behavioral observations included latency to approach, latency to start calling, time spent in the same tree, number of flyovers, minimum distance, number of individuals, number of flights into the tree, and number of calls. There was no significant influence of stimulus presentation. Nuthatches responded equally to all four experimental manipulations, but order of presentation had a strong influence.

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Male Great Tits (Parus major) adjust dear enemy effect expression in different breeding stages

Cited by 16 publications

References 64 publications

Dynamic changes to signal allocation rules in response to variable social environments in house mice

Dynamic changes to signal allocation rules in response to variable social environments in house mice

No reproductive fitness benefits of dear enemy behaviour in a territorial songbird

Territorial Responses of Nuthatches Sitta europaea—Evaluation of a Robot Model in a Simulated Territorial Intrusion

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