Duetting and mate-guarding in Australian magpie-larks (Grallina cyanoleuca) |
| |
Authors: | M L Hall R D Magrath |
| |
Institution: | (1) Division of Botany and Zoology, Australian National University Canberra, A.C.T., 0200, Australia e-mail: Michelle.Hall@anu.edu.au Tel.: +61-2-62492866, Fax: +61-2-62495573, AU |
| |
Abstract: | A recently favored hypothesis is that duetting in birds has a mate-guarding function: a male responds vocally to his partner’s
song, thereby forming a duet that repels males who are attracted to her song. Previous studies have not provided unambiguous
tests of the mate-guarding hypothesis because: (1) the probability of a male answering his partner’s song has not been shown
to increase specifically when the female is fertile, and (2) the probability of a male answering his partner’s song has not
been assessed separately from simply a higher song initiation rate. We investigated extra-pair paternity, mate-guarding, and
duetting in the socially monogamous Australian magpie-lark (Grallina cyanoleuca). DNA fingerprinting revealed that 3% of young were the result of extra-pair paternity, and we found that males guarded fertile
females by staying close to them. However, males did not initiate songs at a higher rate when females were fertile and actually
reduced their probability of replying to female song during this period. We conclude that although male magpie-larks did guard
fertile females in an attempt to prevent extra-pair copulations, they did not use duetting for this purpose.
Received: 10 May 1999 / Received in revised form: 27 September 1999 / Accepted: 2 October 1999 |
| |
Keywords: | Bird song Duet Mate-guard Monogamy DNA fingerprinting |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|