Molles Laura E., Vehrencamp Sandra L.
Department of Biology, University of California, San Diego
Anim Behav. 2001 Jan;61(1):119-127. doi: 10.1006/anbe.2000.1561.
Several studies and reviews have suggested that the ability to discriminate between neighbours and strangers decreases as neighbour song repertoire size and song type sharing increase. We tested the recognition capabilities of territorial male banded wrens by comparing the aggressive approach responses of focal birds to three playback treatments: shared song types sung by an adjacent neighbour (neighbour song), shared song types sung by unfamiliar birds (mimic song), and unshared song types sung by unfamiliar birds (unfamiliar song). All three treatments for each male were broadcast from the same location on the territorial boundary shared with the appropriate neighbour. As expected, focal males responded nonaggressively to the neighbour treatment and aggressively to the unfamiliar song treatment. The approach response to the mimic treatment was statistically indistinguishable from the unfamiliar treatment and significantly higher than the neighbour treatment, suggesting that most males were able to recognize unfamiliar singers even when the song types played were very similar to those of their neighbours. The relative strength of responses to the mimic varied: some males treated the mimic song with low aggression levels typical of responses to neighbour song. Repertoire sizes of focal and neighbour birds, the fraction of song types shared among neighbouring males, and the similarity of neighbour and mimic song types did not explain this variation. Therefore, within the short 3-min period of our playback experiments, some birds may have used repertoire composition as a recognition cue and confused the mimic with the neighbour. Copyright 2001 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.
多项研究及综述表明，随着邻居歌曲 repertoire 大小及歌曲类型共享程度的增加，区分邻居和陌生者的能力会下降。我们通过比较焦点鸟对三种回放处理的攻击性接近反应，测试了领地性雄性斑鹪鹩的识别能力：由相邻邻居演唱的共享歌曲类型（邻居歌曲）、由不熟悉的鸟演唱的共享歌曲类型（模仿歌曲），以及由不熟悉的鸟演唱的非共享歌曲类型（不熟悉歌曲）。对每只雄性的所有三种处理都从与相应邻居共享的领地边界上的同一位置进行广播。正如预期的那样，焦点雄性对邻居处理无攻击性反应，对不熟悉歌曲处理有攻击性反应。对模仿处理的接近反应在统计学上与不熟悉处理没有区别，且显著高于邻居处理，这表明即使播放的歌曲类型与它们邻居的非常相似，大多数雄性也能够识别不熟悉的歌唱者。对模仿的反应强度各不相同：一些雄性对模仿歌曲的攻击性水平较低，这是对邻居歌曲反应的典型特征。焦点鸟和邻居鸟的 repertoire 大小、相邻雄性之间共享的歌曲类型比例，以及邻居和模仿歌曲类型的相似性并不能解释这种变化。因此，在我们回放实验的短短 3 分钟内，一些鸟可能将 repertoire 组成用作识别线索，并将模仿者与邻居混淆。版权所有 2001 动物行为研究协会。
