Vocal performance reflects individual quality in a nonpasserine

Janicke, Tim; Hahn, Steffen; Ritz, Markus S.; Peter, Hans‐Ulrich

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2007.04.007

Cited by 42 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…Lusitanian toadfish males that contract the sonic muscles at a very fast rate could reliably be indicating to females their better quality (condition) with the ability to sustain sonic muscle contraction close to their physiological limit. Consistent with this suggestion, males of the non-passerine bird brown skuas that produce long difficult calls close to their performance limit are honestly advertising their quality because they have a higher breeding success and fledge more chicks (Janicke et al, 2008).…”

Section: Boatwhistle Characteristicssupporting

confidence: 56%

Lusitanian toadfish song reflects male quality

Amorim

Simões

Mendonça

et al. 2010

Journal of Experimental Biology

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SUMMARYLusitanian toadfish males that provide parental care rely on acoustic signals (the boatwhistle) to attract females to their nest. We test the hypothesis that male quality, namely male size and condition that are relevant for parental success, is reflected in vocal activity and boatwhistle characteristics and thus advertised to females. We recorded 22 males over a week during the peak of the breeding season. Calling rate and calling effort (percentage of time spent calling) strongly reflected male condition (lipid content of somatic muscles) and to a smaller extent sonic muscle hypertrophy and larger gonads. Males in better condition (increased body lipid and relative higher liver mass) also contracted the sonic muscles at faster rate as shown by the shorter boatwhistle pulse periods. Amplitude modulation reflected the degree of sonic muscle hypertrophy. None of the measured male quality parameters were good predictors of boatwhistle duration and dominant frequency. Altogether this study strongly suggests that Lusitanian toadfish males advertise their quality to females primarily with boatwhistle calling rate and calling effort, which mainly reflect male condition. Because pulse period had low variability, consistent with the existence of a vocal central pattern generator, we suggest that males that sustain sonic muscles contraction at a very fast rate close to their physiological limit may be honestly advertising their quality (condition). Similarly, males that produce boatwhistles with higher amplitude modulation, a feature that seems dependent on sonic muscle hypertrophy, could be more attractive to females.

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Section: Boatwhistle Characteristicssupporting

confidence: 56%

Lusitanian toadfish song reflects male quality

Amorim

Simões

Mendonça

et al. 2010

Journal of Experimental Biology

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“…Birds also emit multi-element syllables (Vallet et al 1997), which are more difficult to perform than other syllables (Janicke et al 2008). Those calls elicit high levels of copulation solicitation displays, and are predominantly produced by successful breeders (Leitner and Catchpole 2002;Janicke et al 2008). As these syllables are used in mating, courtship and other sexual contexts, they were called 'sexy syllables' (Leitner and Catchpole 2002).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Thus, these calls are distinguishable into two call type categories, and different individuals uttered a distinct number of the two frequency step syllable types. Birds also emit multi-element syllables (Vallet et al 1997), which are more difficult to perform than other syllables (Janicke et al 2008). Those calls elicit high levels of copulation solicitation displays, and are predominantly produced by successful breeders (Leitner and Catchpole 2002;Janicke et al 2008).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ultrasonic courtship vocalizations in wild house mice: spectrographic analyses

Hoffmann

Musolf

Penn

2011

J Ethol

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House mice emit ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) during courtship, which are sexually dimorphic and function to attract mates. Spectrographic analyses of laboratory mice show that USVs are surprisingly complex and have features of song. In this study, we conducted the first spectral and temporal analyses of recordings from wild house mice (F1 from wild-caught Mus musculus musculus). Inspection of the spectral shape of syllables shows that the USVs from wild mice can be classified by both frequency and duration, and the most apparent distinction is between low-versus high-frequency calls. High-frequency calls of wild mice seem to be emitted at a much higher frequency range than previously found in some laboratory mice. Interestingly, we found that 20% of males do not vocalize at all, though the reason for their behaviour is unclear. Future studies are needed to determine what kind of information is conveyed in these complex vocalizations, and why some males appear to be non-vocalizers.

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“…These authors suggested that males that contract the sonic muscles at a very fast rate could reliably be indicating to neighbouring males or females their better quality (condition) with the ability to sustain sonic muscle contraction close to their physiological limit. Consistently, males of the nonpasserine bird Brown Skuas that produce long difficult calls close to their performance limit are honestly advertising a higher breeding success (Janicke et al 2008). …”

Section: Stereotypy Vs Variabilitymentioning

confidence: 90%

Stereotypy and variation of the mating call in the Lusitanian toadfish, Halobatrachus didactylus

Amorim

Simões

Almada

et al. 2010

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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Signal attributes should show different degrees of variability depending on the information to be conveyed. Species identity is usually associated with stereotyped features of a signal, whereas other types of information such as individual quality and motivation are associated with signal plasticity. Lusitanian toadfish males form aggregations during the breeding season and emit a tonal advertisement call (the boatwhistle) to attract mates to their nests. We test the hypothesis that the boatwhistle can convey information both on individual identity and motivation by checking how signal parameters vary with time. We study how the physical (tide level) and social (calling alone or in a chorus) environments and male calling rate affect this advertisement signal and how all these external and internal factors (environment, social and male motivation) blend to modulate the Lusitanian toadfish's advertisement call. Boatwhistles of each male were very stereotyped in short periods of time (minutes), but intra-male signal variability greatly increased in a longer time scale (days). Nevertheless, significant differences among males could still be found even in a long time scale. Pulse period was the acoustic feature that most contributed to discriminate among males. Tide level and male calling rate modulated boatwhistle characteristics, and there was a differential effect of tide on call attributes depending on male calling rate. Social acoustic environment only affected calling rate. These results suggest that inter-individual differences in call characteristics and call plasticity may mediate both malemale assessment and mate choice.

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Vocal performance reflects individual quality in a nonpasserine

Cited by 42 publications

References 46 publications

Lusitanian toadfish song reflects male quality

Lusitanian toadfish song reflects male quality

Ultrasonic courtship vocalizations in wild house mice: spectrographic analyses

Stereotypy and variation of the mating call in the Lusitanian toadfish, Halobatrachus didactylus

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