Laboratoire d'Ethologie et Cognition Comparées, EA 3456, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense, Paris, France.
PLoS One. 2011;6(8):e22686. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0022686. Epub 2011 Aug 9.
Many animals live in a communication network, an environment where individuals can obtain information about competitors or potential mates by observing interactions between conspecifics. In such an environment, interactants might benefit by changing their signalling behaviour in the presence of an audience. This audience effect seems widespread among species, has been observed during various types of interaction (e.g. intra-sexual vs. inter-sexual interaction) and varies according to the social context (e.g. gender, hierarchical or mating status of the audience). However, the way individuals might adapt their signalling behaviour to a combination of these factors remains poorly understood. To address this question, we studied how the presence of an audience affects the behaviour of male domestic canaries Serinus canaria during two types of interactions: (i) an extra-pair interaction and (ii) a male-male competition for food. Males were observed under three conditions: (a) in the absence of audience, (b) in the presence of their mate or (c) of a familiar female. Our results show that male domestic canaries minutely adapt their courting and agonistic behaviours to a combination of: (i) the type of interaction (extra-pair interaction/male-male competition), (ii) the social context (mate, familiar female or nobody in audience) and (iii) the behaviours of both the audience and the interactant. These results highlight the ability of animals to subtly adapt their behaviour to the social environment. This also raises questions about the cognitive foundations and evolution of these processes especially considering that canaries are known neither for having high cognitive abilities nor for being a typical example for the social intelligence hypothesis.
许多动物生活在一个交流网络中，在这个环境中，个体可以通过观察同种个体之间的相互作用来获得关于竞争对手或潜在配偶的信息。在这种环境中，互动者通过在观众面前改变他们的信号行为可能会受益。这种观众效应似乎在许多物种中都很普遍，已经在各种类型的互动（例如，同性间互动与异性间互动）中观察到，并且根据社会背景（例如，观众的性别、等级或交配状态）而有所不同。然而，个体如何根据这些因素的组合来调整他们的信号行为仍然知之甚少。为了解决这个问题，我们研究了观众的存在如何影响雄性家雀（Serinus canaria）在两种类型的互动中的行为：（i） 种间互动和（ii） 雄性对食物的竞争。在三种条件下观察雄性家雀的行为：（a） 没有观众，（b） 有配偶，或（c） 有熟悉的雌性。我们的结果表明，雄性家雀微妙地调整了他们的求爱和争斗行为，以适应以下组合：（i） 互动类型（种间互动/雄性竞争），（ii） 社会背景（配偶、熟悉的雌性或观众中无人），以及（iii） 观众和互动者的行为。这些结果强调了动物能够微妙地适应社会环境的能力。这也引发了关于这些过程的认知基础和进化的问题，特别是考虑到家雀既没有高认知能力，也不是社会智能假说的典型例子。
