Nakagawa Shinichi, Lee Jin-Won, Woodward Beth K, Hatchwell Ben J, Burke Terry
Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK.
Biol Lett. 2008 Dec 23;4(6):667-9. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2008.0349.
The maintenance of honesty in a badge-of-status system is not fully understood, despite numerous empirical and theoretical studies. Our experiment examined the relationship between a status signal and winter survival, and the long-term costs of cheating, by manipulating badge size in male house sparrows, Passer domesticus. The effect of badge-size manipulation on survival was complex owing to the significant interactions between the treatments and original (natural) badge size, and between the treatments and age classes (yearlings and older birds). Nevertheless, in the experimental (badge-enlargement) group, males with originally large badges had increased winter survival, while males with originally small badges had decreased survival. This indicates that differential selection can act on a trait according to the degree of cheating.
尽管有大量实证研究和理论研究，但在身份标志系统中诚实的维持仍未被完全理解。我们的实验通过操纵雄性家麻雀（Passer domesticus）的徽章大小，研究了地位信号与冬季存活率之间的关系以及作弊的长期成本。由于处理方式与原始（自然）徽章大小之间以及处理方式与年龄组（一岁鸟和成年鸟）之间存在显著相互作用，徽章大小操纵对存活率的影响很复杂。然而，在实验（徽章增大）组中，原本徽章大的雄性冬季存活率增加，而原本徽章小的雄性存活率下降。这表明差异选择可以根据作弊程度作用于一个性状。
