Female behaviour is differentially associated with specific components of multimodal courtship in ring doves
Mitoyen, Clémentine ; Quigley, Cliodhna ; Boehly, Thibault LU
and Fusani, Leonida
(2021)
In Animal Behaviour
173.
p.21-39
- Abstract
Courtship displays are typically conspicuous, elaborate and composed of concomitant signals occurring in different sensory modalities. Although multimodal signals have received increasing attention over the past years, technical issues, in particular the lack of appropriate recording and analytical methods, have long restricted large-scale systematic study of their function. Here, we investigated in detail in 100 male–female dyads whether the multimodal, audiovisual courtship signals of the male ring dove, Streptopelia risoria, are associated with different immediate behavioural responses by the female, and whether such responses depend on the courting individual. We used synchronized high-speed video and audio recordings followed by... (More)
Courtship displays are typically conspicuous, elaborate and composed of concomitant signals occurring in different sensory modalities. Although multimodal signals have received increasing attention over the past years, technical issues, in particular the lack of appropriate recording and analytical methods, have long restricted large-scale systematic study of their function. Here, we investigated in detail in 100 male–female dyads whether the multimodal, audiovisual courtship signals of the male ring dove, Streptopelia risoria, are associated with different immediate behavioural responses by the female, and whether such responses depend on the courting individual. We used synchronized high-speed video and audio recordings followed by semiautomatic image- and audio-processing techniques to precisely quantify variation in male courtship and female response. In particular, we investigated the structure of acoustic and visual courtship components, as well as aspects related to multimodal synchronization. We found that the fundamental frequency of male calls, as well as the total courtship duration and the duration of courtship bouts, influenced female tail-quivering behaviour, confirming that this behaviour is a sign of sexual interest in doves. On the other hand, some courtship variables frequently investigated in the literature, such as courtship rate, did not affect any aspect of female response. Additionally, we demonstrated an effect of repeated encounters with an individual of the opposite sex both on male courtship variables and on female sexual response to courtship. Females also responded differently to different males, that is, we found variation in female behavioural response to courtship variables related to identity and courtship effort. Further empirical studies are needed to assess how different male courtship elements influence female behaviour and ultimate mating decisions.
(Less)
- author
- Mitoyen, Clémentine
; Quigley, Cliodhna
; Boehly, Thibault
LU
and Fusani, Leonida
- publishing date
- 2021-03-01
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- bird, elaborate signal, female choice, multisensory signalling, sexual selection
- in
- Animal Behaviour
- volume
- 173
- pages
- 19 pages
- publisher
- Elsevier
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85099657180
- ISSN
- 0003-3472
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.anbehav.2020.12.014
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- no
- additional info
- Funding Information: This work was supported by Leonida Fusani's Startup funding of the University of Vienna , Austria, by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) : W1262-B29 , and by the Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF) CS18-021 . We thank Charlotte Brizon for her help running the experiment and Simon Wölfl for his help coding the videos. We thank Sabrina Bettoni and Raffaela Lesch for their input regarding acoustic analysis. We thank the manager of the Animal Care Facility, Philipp Maier as well as the animal keepers Alexandra Bohmann and Barbara Timmler from the Department of Cognitive Biology, and Nathalie Skupa from the Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology for their excellent animal care. We thank Anne Hloch for her help in measuring the male doves. We also thank Max Hofbauer and John Stowers for their help and support regarding recording hardware and analysis software. Finally, we thank the two referees for their extremely useful comments on the manuscript. Publisher Copyright: © 2020 The Authors
- id
- 0f002f1d-c946-47fe-927c-03296390b1b2
- date added to LUP
- 2021-11-01 11:00:19
- date last changed
- 2022-04-27 05:21:40
@article{0f002f1d-c946-47fe-927c-03296390b1b2,
abstract = {{<p>Courtship displays are typically conspicuous, elaborate and composed of concomitant signals occurring in different sensory modalities. Although multimodal signals have received increasing attention over the past years, technical issues, in particular the lack of appropriate recording and analytical methods, have long restricted large-scale systematic study of their function. Here, we investigated in detail in 100 male–female dyads whether the multimodal, audiovisual courtship signals of the male ring dove, Streptopelia risoria, are associated with different immediate behavioural responses by the female, and whether such responses depend on the courting individual. We used synchronized high-speed video and audio recordings followed by semiautomatic image- and audio-processing techniques to precisely quantify variation in male courtship and female response. In particular, we investigated the structure of acoustic and visual courtship components, as well as aspects related to multimodal synchronization. We found that the fundamental frequency of male calls, as well as the total courtship duration and the duration of courtship bouts, influenced female tail-quivering behaviour, confirming that this behaviour is a sign of sexual interest in doves. On the other hand, some courtship variables frequently investigated in the literature, such as courtship rate, did not affect any aspect of female response. Additionally, we demonstrated an effect of repeated encounters with an individual of the opposite sex both on male courtship variables and on female sexual response to courtship. Females also responded differently to different males, that is, we found variation in female behavioural response to courtship variables related to identity and courtship effort. Further empirical studies are needed to assess how different male courtship elements influence female behaviour and ultimate mating decisions.</p>}},
author = {{Mitoyen, Clémentine and Quigley, Cliodhna and Boehly, Thibault and Fusani, Leonida}},
issn = {{0003-3472}},
keywords = {{bird; elaborate signal; female choice; multisensory signalling; sexual selection}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{03}},
pages = {{21--39}},
publisher = {{Elsevier}},
series = {{Animal Behaviour}},
title = {{Female behaviour is differentially associated with specific components of multimodal courtship in ring doves}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2020.12.014}},
doi = {{10.1016/j.anbehav.2020.12.014}},
volume = {{173}},
year = {{2021}},
}