Howell Clara, Anderson Rindy, Derryberry Elizabeth P
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Tulane University New Orleans LA USA.
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology University of Tennessee Knoxville TN USA.
Ecol Evol. 2020 Aug 20;10(18):10281-10291. doi: 10.1002/ece3.6690. eCollection 2020 Sep.
Correlative evidence suggests that high problem-solving and foraging abilities in a mate are associated with direct fitness advantages, so it would benefit females to prefer problem-solving males. Recent work has also shown that females of several bird species who directly observe males prefer those that can solve a novel foraging task over those that cannot. In addition to or instead of direct observation of cognitive skills, many species utilize assessment signals when choosing a mate. Here, we test whether females can select a problem-solving male over a non-solving male when presented only with a signal known to be used in mate assessment: song. Using an operant conditioning assay, we compared female zebra finch () preference for the songs of males that could quickly solve a novel foraging task to the songs of males that could not solve the task. Females were never housed with the test subject males whose song they heard, and the only information provided about the males was their song. We found that females elicited more songs of problem-solving males than of non-solvers, indicating that song may contain information about a male's ability to solve a novel foraging task and that naïve females prefer the songs of problem-solving males.
相关证据表明，配偶具有较高的解决问题和觅食能力与直接的适应性优势相关，因此雌性选择善于解决问题的雄性会从中受益。最近的研究还表明，一些直接观察雄性的鸟类雌性更喜欢能够解决新觅食任务的雄性，而不是不能解决的雄性。除了直接观察认知技能之外或作为替代，许多物种在选择配偶时会利用评估信号。在这里，我们测试当只呈现一种已知用于配偶评估的信号——歌声时，雌性是否能够选择善于解决问题的雄性而非不善于解决问题的雄性。我们使用操作性条件反射试验，将雌性斑胸草雀对能够快速解决新觅食任务的雄性歌声的偏好与不能解决该任务的雄性歌声的偏好进行了比较。雌性从未与它们听到歌声的测试雄性一起饲养，关于这些雄性的唯一信息就是它们的歌声。我们发现，雌性引发善于解决问题的雄性唱出的歌声比不善于解决问题的雄性更多，这表明歌声可能包含有关雄性解决新觅食任务能力的信息，而且未接触过相关信息的雌性更喜欢善于解决问题的雄性的歌声。
