Bentley G E, Wingfield J C, Morton M L, Ball G F
Department of Psychology, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA.
Horm Behav. 2000 May;37(3):179-89. doi: 10.1006/hbeh.2000.1573.
Courtship vocalizations of male songbirds can profoundly enhance the reproductive physiology and behavior of conspecific females. However, no study has fully investigated the selectivity of conspecific song effects on reproductive development in birds. We studied the effects of conspecific and heterospecific song on reproductive development in domesticated (canaries) and wild songbirds (song sparrows). As expected, conspecific song enhanced follicular development. Unexpectedly, however, birds exposed to heterospecific song also underwent enhanced follicular development (compared to birds exposed to no song); conspecific and heterospecific songs were equally effective in enhancing ovarian development. In canaries exposed to 18L:6D, conspecific song induced oviposition earlier and at a greater frequency than in heterospecific and no song groups, with the fewest eggs being laid in the no song group. These results indicate that conspecific and heterospecific male song can enhance reproductive activity in female songbirds. Whether or not activation of the reproductive axis in female songbirds by heterospecific song occurs in the wild remains unclear. It is also unclear as to whether the ability of the reproductive axis to respond to heterospecific song performs a specific function, or whether it is simply a consequence of greater selection pressure acting upon behavioral responses to song.
雄性鸣禽的求偶发声能够极大地促进同种雌性的生殖生理和行为。然而，尚无研究全面探究同种鸣叫声对鸟类生殖发育影响的选择性。我们研究了同种和异种鸣叫声对家养（金丝雀）和野生鸣禽（歌雀）生殖发育的影响。正如预期的那样，同种鸣叫声促进了卵泡发育。然而，出乎意料的是，接触异种鸣叫声的鸟类也出现了卵泡发育增强的情况（与未接触鸣叫声的鸟类相比）；同种和异种鸣叫声在促进卵巢发育方面同样有效。在接受18小时光照：6小时黑暗条件的金丝雀中，同种鸣叫声比异种鸣叫声和无鸣叫声组更早且更频繁地诱导产卵，无鸣叫声组产卵最少。这些结果表明，同种和异种雄性鸣叫声均可增强雌性鸣禽的生殖活动。异种鸣叫声在野外是否会激活雌性鸣禽的生殖轴尚不清楚。生殖轴对异种鸣叫声作出反应的能力是执行特定功能，还是仅仅是作用于对鸣叫声行为反应的更大选择压力的结果，也不清楚。
