Song as an aggressive signal in songbirds

Searcy, William A.; Beecher, Michael D.

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2009.08.011

Cited by 314 publications

(366 citation statements)

References 106 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

344

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…once a sibling produces slightly longer calls, a focal individual started to produce a slightly longer call in an attempt to dominate the interaction). In many songbirds, song matching, which consists of imitating a competitor's song type, is often perceived as a threat signal (Searcy & Beecher, 2009).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social rules govern vocal competition in the barn owl

et al. 2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

To resolve the share of limited resources, animals often compete through exchange of signals about their relative motivation to compete. When two competitors are similarly motivated, the resolution of conflicts may be achieved in the course of an interactive process. In barn owls, Tyto alba, in which siblings vocally compete during the prolonged absence of parents over access to the next delivered food item, we investigated what governs the decision to leave or enter a contest, and at which level. Siblings alternated periods during which one of the two individuals vocalized more than the other. Individuals followed turn-taking rules to interrupt each other and momentarily dominate the vocal competition. These social rules were weakly sensitive to hunger level and age hierarchy. Hence, the investment in a conflict is determined not only by need and resource-holding potential, but also by social interactions. The use of turn-taking rules governing individual vocal investment has rarely been shown in a competitive context. We hypothesized that these rules would allow individuals to remain alert to one another's motivation while maintaining the cost of vocalizing at the lowest level.© 2015 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd.Natural selection has favoured the evolution of behaviours and weapons to outcompete conspecifics, or of communication systems to resolve the share of resources (Maynard Smith, 1982;Parker, 1974). The term 'negotiation' is usually used for humans who bargain for resources and the process typically ends with a decision about which part of the resource each participant obtains (Nash, 1950). Evolutionary ecologists also use this concept to define situations in which animals communicate to reach an agreement about how a resource is shared or how to invest in a collaborative task (Johnstone & Hinde, 2006;Johnstone & Roulin, 2003;McNamara, Gasson, & Houston, 1999;Patricelli, Krakauer, & McElreath, 2011;Sirot, 2012). An individual that presents conspicuous ornaments or signals at higher levels than its opponents (e.g. produces louder begging calls in nestling birds) usually gains easier access to these limited resources (Godfray, 1991;Kilner, Noble, & Davies, 1999), but, for transient signals, this average signal level can vary over short periods of time, independently of variation in need or condition (Briffa, Elwood, & Dick, 1998;Greenfield, Tourtellot, & Snedden, 1997). The contest outcome is then the result of an interactive process settled during repeated interactions (Briffa et al., 1998;Enquist & Leimar, 1983;Enquist, Leimar, Ljungberg, Mallner, & Segerdahl, 1990;Payne & Pagel, 1996). These variations in signal level during competitive interactions raise the possibility that animals assess the temporal dynamics of signal production and not only the absolute signalling level of conspecifics to adjust their behaviour (Patricelli, Uy, Walsh, & Borgia, 2002). Game theory has dominated the way evolutionary biologists envisage social interactions (Dobler & Koll...

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social rules govern vocal competition in the barn owl

et al. 2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Type matching also has been shown to predict attack, but only in the context of a gradual escalation and not when the simulated intrusion starts from the territory centre [27]. We also recorded the number of broadcast ('loud') songs which are known not to correlate with aggression in song sparrows (or in most songbirds for that matter; review in [33]). Our analyses of signalling strategies therefore focused specifically on the known aggressive signals in song sparrows: soft songs and wing waves.…”

Section: (C) Response Measuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Individual differences affect honest signalling in a songbird

2014

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Research in the past decade has established the existence of consistent individual differences or 'personality' in animals and their important role in many aspects of animal behaviour. At the same time, research on honest signalling of aggression has revealed that while some of the putative aggression signals are reliable, they are only imperfectly so. This study asks whether a significant portion of the variance in the aggression-signal regression may be explained by individual differences in signalling strategies. Using the wellstudied aggressive signalling system of song sparrows (Melospiza melodia), we carried out repeated assays to measure both aggressive behaviours and aggressive signalling of territorial males. Through these assays, we found that aggressive behaviours and aggressive signalling were both highly repeatable, and moreover that aggressive behaviours in 2009-2010 predicted whether the birds would attack a taxidermic mount over a year later. Most significantly, we found that residual variation in signalling behaviours, after controlling for aggressive behaviour, was individually consistent, suggesting there may be a second personality trait determining the level of aggressive signalling. We term this potential personality trait 'communicativeness' and discuss these results in the context of honest signalling theories and recent findings reporting prevalence of 'under-signalling'.

show abstract

“…Some signals have been found to be reliable, but in general these cases have been the exception rather than the rule. In the most thoroughly studied system to date-the signals used by many songbird species in territorial defence-most putative threat signals have failed to predict escalation or attack by the signaller [15]. For instance, Searcy et al [11] found that of several putative aggressive signals in song sparrows (Melospiza melodia), only a single signal, low amplitude (soft) song, reliably predicted attack.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Examples are shown in figure 1. Song type matching has been shown to occur at above chance levels for numerous species (see review in [15]) suggesting that it has some sort of a social signalling function in male-male interaction, yet as noted, attempts to show that it predicts escalation (is a threat signal) have repeatedly failed since the original study [16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Song type matching is an honest early threat signal in a hierarchical animal communication system

et al. 2013

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Aggressive encounters between animals often involve significant amounts of signalling before or in lieu of physical fights. When, as is often the case, these apparent threat signals are neither inherently costly nor inherently indicative of fighting ability, we should ask whether they are in fact honest signals, i.e. do they predict that escalation is imminent? While signalling theories have indicated that such 'conventional' threat signals can honestly predict escalation, attempts to gather supporting empirical evidence have mostly failed. For example, recent studies in songbirds of song type matching (replying to an opponent's song with the same song type he has just sung) have failed to confirm that it predicts an eventual attack by the signaller. In the present study of song sparrows (Melospiza melodia), we tested the hypothesis that song type matching is an early threat signal in a hierarchical signalling system. We used an improved model-playback design that simulated an escalating intrusion onto the subject's territory: the simulated opponent first sang in hiding from the boundary before moving to the centre of the territory, where he revealed himself and continued to sing. We found that type matching beginning in the boundary phase and continuing into the escalation phase, or beginning immediately after the escalation, reliably predicted both subsequent escalated signalling (soft songs and wing waves) and subsequent attack on the model, supporting the hypothesis that type matching is a reliable early threat signal.

show abstract

Song as an aggressive signal in songbirds

Cited by 314 publications

References 106 publications

Social rules govern vocal competition in the barn owl

Social rules govern vocal competition in the barn owl

Individual differences affect honest signalling in a songbird

Song type matching is an honest early threat signal in a hierarchical animal communication system

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About