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1
Krohmer, Randolph W., and David Crews. "Control of length of the courtship season in the red-sided garter snake, Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis: the role of temperature." Canadian Journal of Zoology 67, no. 4 (April 1, 1989): 987–93. http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/z89-142.
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The influence of temperature on the length and intensity of the courtship season was examined in both field and laboratory populations of red-sided garter snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis) over a 2-year period. Snakes were exposed to fluctuations in temperature following emergence from hibernation and activation of courtship behavior. In the field, males were exposed to four temperature regimens: extended hibernation (0L:24D, 4 ± 1.5 °C), cool (14L:10D, 12 ± 2.3° C), warm (14L:10D, 28 °C:ambient), or control (ambient temperatures and light). Control animals exhibited courtship behavior fluctuating in intensity with daily ambient temperatures. Animals exhibited high intensity courtship behavior when exposed to warm conditions following emergence from either natural hibernation or a secondary period of laboratory hibernation. Animals placed in the cool regimen were active but exhibited very little courtship behavior. Animals maintained under the cool regimen for 14 days did not initiate courtship behavior when placed in the warm regimen. Studies conducted in the laboratory support the field results. However, whereas animals maintained under the cool regimen for 14 days and then placed in the warm regimen exhibited dramatically reduced courtship behavior, animals placed in the warm regimen after 21 days under the cool regimen initiated courtship of normal intensity and duration. Following the end of all courtship behavior, males exposed to conditions of hibernation for a brief period reinitiated courtship behavior. These data suggest that the areas of the central nervous system critical for the perception of temperature fluctuations and initiation of courtship behavior remained sensitive in late spring. Following the end of the courtship season, females exposed to a brief period of hibernation also reinstated courtship behavior in noncourting males. These data suggest that the length of the courtship season ultimately may be controlled by the presence of attractive females.
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Clark, David L., J. Andrew Roberts, and George W. Uetz. "Eavesdropping and signal matching in visual courtship displays of spiders." Biology Letters 8, no. 3 (January 4, 2012): 375–78. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2011.1096.
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Eavesdropping on communication is widespread among animals, e.g. bystanders observing male–male contests, female mate choice copying and predator detection of prey cues. Some animals also exhibit signal matching, e.g. overlapping of competitors' acoustic signals in aggressive interactions. Fewer studies have examined male eavesdropping on conspecific courtship, although males could increase mating success by attending to others' behaviour and displaying whenever courtship is detected. In this study, we show that field-experienced male Schizocosa ocreata wolf spiders exhibit eavesdropping and signal matching when exposed to video playback of courting male conspecifics. Male spiders had longer bouts of interaction with a courting male stimulus, and more bouts of courtship signalling during and after the presence of a male on the video screen. Rates of courtship (leg tapping) displayed by individual focal males were correlated with the rates of the video exemplar to which they were exposed. These findings suggest male wolf spiders might gain information by eavesdropping on conspecific courtship and adjust performance to match that of rivals. This represents a novel finding, as these behaviours have previously been seen primarily among vertebrates.
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Barske, J., L. Fusani, M. Wikelski, N. Y. Feng, M. Santos, and B. A. Schlinger. "Energetics of the acrobatic courtship in male golden-collared manakins ( Manacus vitellinus )." Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 281, no. 1776 (February 7, 2014): 20132482. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2013.2482.
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In lek mating systems, females choose mates through indicators of quality, which males may exhibit by their performance of courtship displays. In temperate regions, displaying seasons are brief (one to two months), whereas in the tropics courtship seasons may be prolonged. Moreover, in temperate-breeding animals lekking behaviour can be energetically demanding, but little is known about the energy costs of lekking in tropical animals. Daily, over the course of a nearly seven-month-long breeding season, male golden-collared manakins ( Manacus vitellinus ) of Panamanian rainforests perform acrobatic courtship displays that markedly elevate heart rates, suggesting that they require high energy investment. Typically, animals of tropical lowland forests (such as manakins) exhibit a ‘slow pace of life’ metabolic strategy. We investigated whether male manakin courtship is indeed metabolically costly or whether the birds retain a low daily energy expenditure (DEE), as seen in other tropical species. To assess these questions, we calibrated manakin heart rate against metabolic rate, examined daily lek activity and, using telemetry, obtained heart rates of individual wild, lekking male manakins. Although metabolic rates peak during courtship displays, we found that males actually invest minimal time (only approx. 5 min d −1 ) performing displays. As a consequence, the DEE of approximately 39 kJ d −1 for male manakins is comparable to other lowland tropical species. The short, intense bursts of courtship by these birds make up only approximately 1.2% of their total DEE. Presumably, this cost is negligible, enabling them to perform daily at their arenas for months on end.
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Rosenthal, Malcolm Fogelin, and Damian O. Elias. "Nonlinear changes in selection on a mating display across a continuous thermal gradient." Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 286, no. 1907 (July 24, 2019): 20191450. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2019.1450.
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Understanding how animal communication varies across time and space is critical to understanding how animal signals have evolved and how they function. Changes in temperature, which occur across both time and space, can alter both the courtship and mate choice behaviour of ectothermic animals. In this study, we examine the effect of daily thermal variation on courtship and mate choice in the wolf spider Schizocosa floridana , which produces a complex song with vibrations from three distinct body parts. We test the hypothesis that different components of S. floridana' s courtship respond differently to daily changes in temperature and that corresponding mate choice patterns lead to complex, overlapping shifts in selection on the display itself. By manipulating the thermal environment of courting and choosing pairs, we found that several song components increased in production rate with increased temperature, whereas others decreased, or did not respond at all. We also found evidence that selection on courtship shifts with temperature in several ways, with some display components experiencing directional selection at higher temperatures, but not at lower temperatures. Our findings make it clear that understanding the effect of environmental variation on communication is critical to understanding how selection operates on mate choice and how signals, particularly complex signals, evolve.
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Patricelli, Gail L., Alan H. Krakauer, and Richard Mcelreath. "Assets and tactics in a mating market: Economic models of negotiation offer insights into animal courtship dynamics on the lek." Current Zoology 57, no. 2 (April 1, 2011): 225–36. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/czoolo/57.2.225.
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Abstract Economists study negotiation as a series of events—partner choice, information gathering, bargaining, etc.—with each step of the process affecting the outcome of the next, and the optimal decision at each stage depending on the player’s bargaining power. The context in which these negotiations occur—the market—is critical, since players can adjust their behaviors in response to outside offers. Animals similarly are faced with sequential decisions regarding courtship: who to court, how to approach a potential mate, at what level to display, when to give up, etc. Thus economic models of negotiation in a market provide a framework in which we can view not just the outcome of courtship (assortative mating), but also the process, where each sex can use tactics to improve their negotiating outcome, using the assets that they have available. Here we propose to use negotiation as a conceptual framework to explore the factors promoting tactical adjustments during sequential stages of courtship in lekking species. Our goal is to discuss the utility of negotiation as a heuristic tool, as well as the promise and peril of co-opting game theoretic models from economics to understand animal interactions. We will provide a brief overview of a few areas where we see promise for using negotiation as a framework to understand animal courtship dynamics: choice of a display territory, tactical partner choice for negotiation, approaching a potential partner and courtship haggling.
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Zhuang, Luming, Ying Sun, Mi Hu, Chenxi Wu, Xiaojin La, Xinhong Chen, Yu Feng, Xingjun Wang, Yujia Hu, and Lei Xue. "Or47b plays a role in Drosophila males' preference for younger mates." Open Biology 6, no. 6 (June 2016): 160086. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsob.160086.
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Reproductive behaviour is important for animals to keep their species existing on Earth. A key question is how to generate more and healthier progenies by choosing optimal mates. In Drosophila melanogaster , males use multiple sensory cues, including vision, olfaction and gustation, to achieve reproductive success. These sensory inputs are important, yet not all these different modalities are simultaneously required for courtship behaviour to occur. Moreover, the roles of these sensory inputs for male courtship choice remain largely unknown. Here, we demonstrate that males court younger females with greater preference and that olfactory inputs are indispensable for this male courtship choice. Specifically, the olfactory receptor Or47b is required for males to discriminate younger female mates from older ones. In combination with our previous work indicating that gustatory perception is necessary for this preference behaviour, our current study demonstrates the requirement of both olfaction and gustation in Drosophila males' courtship preference, thus providing new insights into the role of sensory cues in reproductive behaviour and success.
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McClelland, Blinda E. "Courtship and agonistic behavior in mouflon sheep." Applied Animal Behaviour Science 29, no. 1-4 (February 1991): 67–85. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0168-1591(91)90238-s.
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Hogan, Lindsay, Clive Phillips, Allan Lisle, Alan Horsup, Tina Janssen, and Stephen Johnston. "Reproductive behaviour of the southern-hairy nosed wombat (Lasiorhinus latifrons)." Australian Journal of Zoology 58, no. 6 (2010): 350. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/zo10068.
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The southern hairy-nosed wombat (Lasiorhinus latifrons) is under threat as its current distribution range and population size is declining. The low reproductive rates observed for this species, both in the wild and within captivity, are a cause for concern; as such this study was designed to provide a comprehensive account of reproductive behaviour in L. latifrons. The behaviour of four groups of captive animals (each 1♂ : 2♀) was remotely monitored for 14 months using a digital video-surveillance system. Using this technology, 13 distinctive reproductive-based behaviours were identified and recorded; each behaviour was allocated to one of two categories: courtship/guarding or mating. The courtship-to-mating ritual was made up of six consecutive phases: investigation, attraction, chase, restraint, coitus and recovery. In total, 423 courtship and 49 mating bouts were observed from five (2♂ : 3♀) wombats. Courtship behaviour was observed on 116 days, with a mean bout number of 3.6 ± 0.2 per day and a mean total daily time of 29.8 ± 1.8 min. Mating was observed on 24 days, with a mean bout number of 2.1 ± 0.3 per day and a mean total daily time of 100.1 ± 9.8 min. Courtship occurred over the entire enclosure area and three distinctive courtship locomotor patterns were identified: spiral-circles, straight-lines and random. Matings occurred only in closed spaces and were always accompanied by courtship behaviour. In contrast, only 68% of all courtship days were associated with a mating event. Receptivity in the female wombats lasted for 13 h and the behavioural signs of oestrus were so subtle that only the reaction/interest of the male could be used for its detection. The covert reproductive behaviours identified for female L. latifrons closely match those previously reported for captive common wombats and may relate to this species’ need to conserve energy.
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Baker, Christa A., Jan Clemens, and Mala Murthy. "Acoustic Pattern Recognition and Courtship Songs: Insights from Insects." Annual Review of Neuroscience 42, no. 1 (July 8, 2019): 129–47. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev-neuro-080317-061839.
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Across the animal kingdom, social interactions rely on sound production and perception. From simple cricket chirps to more elaborate bird songs, animals go to great lengths to communicate information critical for reproduction and survival via acoustic signals. Insects produce a wide array of songs to attract a mate, and the intended receivers must differentiate these calls from competing sounds, analyze the quality of the sender from spectrotemporal signal properties, and then determine how to react. Insects use numerically simple nervous systems to analyze and respond to courtship songs, making them ideal model systems for uncovering the neural mechanisms underlying acoustic pattern recognition. We highlight here how the combination of behavioral studies and neural recordings in three groups of insects—crickets, grasshoppers, and fruit flies—reveals common strategies for extracting ethologically relevant information from acoustic patterns and how these findings might translate to other systems.
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Cassola, Francesca Maura, Yann Henaut, José Rogelio Cedeño-Vázquez, Fausto Roberto Méndez-de la Cruz, and Benjamín Morales-Vela. "Temperament and sexual behaviour in the Furrowed Wood Turtle Rhinoclemmys areolata." PLOS ONE 15, no. 12 (December 30, 2020): e0244561. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0244561.
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The variation in temperament among animals has consequences for evolution and ecology. One of the primary effects of consistent behavioral differences is on reproduction. In chelonians some authors have focused on the study of temperament using different methods. In our research our first aim was i) establish a methodology to determine the degree of boldness among individuals Rhinoclemmys areolata. Our second aim was to ii) determine the role boldness plays during reproduction, with emphasis on courtship and copulation, considering a) the interactions between males and females, and b) competition between males. We used 16 sexually mature individuals of each sex. Males were observed in four different situations and 17 behavioral traits were recorded. We selected 12 traits that allowed us distinguish between the bolder and the shier individuals and found that five behavioral traits were specific for bolder individuals and five others for shier individuals. In a second step, we observed a male in presence of a female and recorded courtship behaviors and breeding attempts. Bolder individuals did not display courtship behaviors and just attempted to copulate. Shier individuals displayed courtship behaviors and copulation attempts were rarely observed. Finally, in the simulations that compared two males in the presence of a female we noticed that bolder individuals displayed courtship behaviors while the shier ones simply ignored the female. Our results first allowed us to determine which methodology is the best to determine temperament in turtles. Secondly, temperament seems to be an important factor in modulating interaction between males and females. Bolder individuals have an advantage during competition and display courtship behaviours only if other males are present. Shier males displayed courtship behaviors and only try to copulate when no competitors were present. These two different temperament-dependant strategies are discussed in terms of ecology, evolution and management.
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Scholes, Edwin, and Timothy G. Laman. "Distinctive courtship phenotype of the Vogelkop Superb Bird-of-ParadiseLophorina nieddaMayr, 1930 confirms new species status." PeerJ 6 (April 16, 2018): e4621. http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4621.
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The birds-of-paradise (Aves: Paradisaeidae) are a quintessential example of elaborate ornamental diversification among animals. Ornamental evolution in the birds-of-paradise is exemplified by the presence of a highly integrated courtship phenotype, which is the whole package of plumage ornaments, behaviors and sounds that each species uses during courtship. Characterizing a species’ courtship phenotype is therefore a key part of evolutionary and taxonomic investigation in the group. With its unprecedented transmogrification from bird-like form into something abstract and otherworldly, the courtship phenotype of the Superb Bird-of-Paradise,Lophorina superba,is one of the most remarkable of all. Recent research by Irestedt et al. (2017) suggests that the genusLophorinais not a single species but is likely a complex of three allopatric species spanning the island of New Guinea:L. nieddain the Bird’s Head Peninsula of the west,L. superbathroughout the central cordillera andL. minorin the Papuan Peninsula of the east. Of these,nieddais the most phenotypically divergent with plumage traits hypothesized to possibly produce differences in ornamental appearance during display. However, the whole courtship phenotype ofnieddahas not been documented and so the actual extent of differences in ornamental appearance during courtship remain unknown. Here we analyze the first audiovisual recordings ofnieddaand compare its courtship phenotype withsuperbato test the hypothesis of potential differences in ornamental appearance.Our main goals are to: (1) provide the first description of the courtship phenotype ofnieddain the wild, (2) determine if and how thenieddacourtship phenotype differs fromsuperbaand (3) evaluate any uncovered differences in light ofniedda’snewly recognized species status. Our secondary goal is to provide a more thorough characterization of courtship phenotype diversity within the genusLophorinato facilitate future comparative study within the genus and family.Results show that thenieddacourtship phenotype differs substantially fromsuperbain numerous aspects of ornamental appearance, display behavior and sound. We highlight six key differences and conclude that the new species status ofnieddais corroborated by the distinctly differentiated ornamental features documented here.With full species status,nieddabecomes the fourth endemic bird-of-paradise to the Bird’s Head region of Indonesian New Guinea (i.e., the Vogelkop Peninsula), a fact that underscores the importance of this region as a center of endemic biodiversity worthy of enhanced conservation protection.
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Cargnelutti, Franco, Ulises Castillo-Pérez, Alicia Reyes-Ramírez, Maya Rocha-Ortega, and Alex Córdoba-Aguilar. "Copulatory courtship, body temperature and infection in Tenebrio molitor." PLOS ONE 18, no. 9 (September 8, 2023): e0291384. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0291384.
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Ectothermic animals can raise their body temperature under varying circumstances. Two such situations occur during sexual activity (as metabolic rate rises during copulatory movements) and during infection (to control pathogens more effectively). We have investigated these two situations using Tenebrio molitor males. We recorded the copulatory courtship behavior of sick (= infected with Metharizium robertsii fungus) vs healthy males and its link with body temperature. We predicted a positive relation between copulatory courtship (measured as antennal and leg contact behavior) and body temperature, especially in sick males. We found that the intensity of contacts correlated with increased body temperature in sick males. Previous studies in this species indicated that partner females laid fewer eggs after mating with sick males above a certain male body temperature threshold. Thus, our present findings suggest that females may detect male infection via intensity of antennal-mediated courtship, body temperature or their combination. If this is the case, females may assess male cues directly related to health status such as body temperature.
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Ellis, Emily A., and Todd H. Oakley. "High Rates of Species Accumulation in Animals with Bioluminescent Courtship Displays." Current Biology 26, no. 14 (July 2016): 1916–21. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2016.05.043.
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Santori, Claudia, Luc F. Bussière, and Thomas M. Houslay. "Heightened perception of competition hastens courtship." Behavioral Ecology 31, no. 1 (October 29, 2019): 239–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arz183.
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Abstract When animals use costly labile display or signal traits to display to the opposite sex, they face complex decisions regarding the degree and timing of their investment in separate instances of trait expression. Such decisions may be informed by not only the focal individual’s condition (or pool of available resources) but also aspects of the social environment, such as perceptions of same-sex competition or the quality of available mates. However, the relative importance of these factors to investment decisions remains unclear. Here, we use manipulations of condition (through dietary nutrition), recent social environment (exposure to a silenced male, nonsilenced male, female, or isolation), and female mating history (single or multiple male) to test how quickly male decorated crickets (Gryllodes sigillatus) decide to begin courting an available female. We find that males that were previously housed with nonsilenced males started courting the female earlier than other males. Females only mounted males after courtship began. Our results suggest a strong effect of the perception of competition on the decision to invest resources in sexual signaling behavior and that females might exert directional selection on its timing.
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Nickel, Desirée, and Alberto Civetta. "An X chromosome effect responsible for asymmetric reproductive isolation between male Drosophila virilis and heterospecific females." Genome 52, no. 1 (January 2009): 49–56. http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/g08-102.
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Reproductive isolation between closely related species is expressed through uncoordinated courtship, failed fertilization, and (or) postzygotic barriers. Behavioural components of mating often form an initial barrier to hybridization between species. In many animals, females are responsible for mating discrimination in both intra- and interspecific crosses; males of Drosophila virilis group represent an exception to this trend. Using overall productivity tests, we show that a lower proportion of D. virilis males sire progeny when paired with a heterospecific female ( Drosophila novamexicana or Drosophila americana texana ) for 2 weeks. This suggests male mate discrimination or some other kind of asymmetrical incompatibility in courtship and mating or early zygote mortality. We used males from D. virilis – D. novamexicana and from D. virilis – D. a. texana backcross populations to map chromosome effects responsible for male reproductive isolation. Results from the analysis of both backcross male populations indicate a major X chromosome effect. Further, we conduct a male behavioural analysis to show that D. virilis males significantly fail to continue courtship after the first step of courtship, when they tap heterospecific females. The combined results of a major X chromosome effect and the observation that D. virilis males walk away from females after tapping suggest that future studies should concentrate on the identification of X-linked genes affecting the ability of males to recognize conspecific females.
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Mungall, Elizabeth Cary. "Highlights for Arabian oryx: courtship, care sessions and agonistic behavior." Applied Animal Behaviour Science 29, no. 1-4 (February 1991): 503–4. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0168-1591(91)90273-z.
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Odo, B. I., S. O. Alaku, and B. U. Ekenyem. "Feeding behavior of crossbred pigs reared intensively in Southeastern Nigeria." Nigerian Journal of Animal Production 37, no. 2 (January 3, 2021): 271–78. http://dx.doi.org/10.51791/njap.v37i2.1385.
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The in situ feeding behavior of pigs was studied for a period of 18 weeks using 3 different but clinically healthy crossbred pigs of varying genotypes. Results showed that there was no marked difference in the pre-feeding, feeding and post-feeding behaviors of the different hybrids used. Observation of feeding behavior showed that all animals fed (picked feed) very intensively during the first 35 minutes of introduction of feed Other activities observed include playing/bullying drinking wallowing, social and courtship behaviors. Rooting and other behaviors like climbing of pen walls were also observed There was no significant difference (P>O.05) in time spent during ingestion (picking of feed) between LW x LC and LC x L crosses. However there was significant difference (P< O. 05) in time spent during ingestion between LWxLC with LWxL crosses, and LCxL with LWxL crosses The total feeding time was slightly higher O. 05) in LWxL than, either of the Other groups. Rooting time was slightly lower in LWx L crosses than in any other group. Total time spent on other major activities like drinking wallowing, playing/ bullying, social/courtship behaviors was slightly higher (P < 0.05) in LWxLC and LWxL than LWxLC crosses. Knowledge of animal behavior is important for improved productivity as well as animal welfare since q deviation from the normal behavior is an indication of ill health.
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Naranjo, Tomás. "Finding the Correct Partner: The Meiotic Courtship." Scientifica 2012 (2012): 1–14. http://dx.doi.org/10.6064/2012/509073.
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Homologous chromosomes are usually separated at the entrance of meiosis; how they become paired is one of the outstanding mysteries of the meiotic process. Reduction of spacing between homologues makes possible the occurrence of chromosomal interactions leading to homology detection and the formation of bivalents. In many organisms, telomere-led chromosome movements are generated that bring homologues together. Additional movements produced by chromatin conformational changes at early meiosis may also facilitate homologous contacts. Organisms used in the study of meiosis show a surprising variety of strategies for homology detection. In dipterans, homologous chromosomes remain paired throughout most of development. Pairing seems to arise as a balance between promoter and suppressor pairing genes. Some fungi, plants and animals, use mechanisms based on recombinational interactions. Other mechanisms leading to homology search are recombination-independent and require specialized pairing sites. In the wormCaenorhabditis elegans, each chromosome carries a pairing center consisting of a chromosome-specific DNA-protein complex, and in the fission yeastSchizosaccharomyces pombe, thesme2locus encodes a meiosis-specific non-coding RNA that mediates on homologous recognition. In addition, mismatch correction plays a relevant role, especially in polyploids, which evolved genetic systems that suppress pairing between non-homologous related (homoeologus) chromosomes.
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Golov, Yiftach, Ally Harari, Jan Rillich, and Amir Ayali. "Precopulatory behavior and sexual conflict in the desert locust." PeerJ 6 (February 28, 2018): e4356. http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4356.
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Studies of mating and reproductive behavior have contributed much to our understanding of various animals’ ecological success. The desert locust,Schistocerca gregaria, is an important agricultural pest. However, knowledge of locust courtship and precopulatory behavior is surprisingly limited. Here we provide a comprehensive study of the precopulatory behavior of both sexes of the desert locust in the gregarious phase, with particular emphasis on the conflict between the sexes. Detailed HD-video monitoring of courtship and mating of 20 locust pairs, in a controlled environment, enabled both qualitative and quantitative descriptions of the behavior. A comprehensive list of behavioral elements was used to generate an eight-step ethogram, depicting from first encounter between the sexes to actual copulation. Further analyses included the probability of each element occurring, and a kinematic diagram based on a transitional matrix. Eleven novel behavioral elements are described in this study, and two potential points of conflict between the sexes are identified. Locust sexual interaction was characterized by the dominance of the males during the pre-mounting stage, and an overall stereotypic male courtship behavior. In contrast, females displayed no clear courtship-related behavior and an overall less organized behavioral sequence. Central elements in the sexual behavior of the females were low-amplitude hind-leg vibration, as well as rejecting males by jumping and kicking. Intricate reciprocal interactions between the sexes were evident mostly at the mounting stage. The reported findings contribute important insights to our knowledge of locust mating and reproductive behavior, and may assist in confronting this devastating agricultural pest.
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Monestier, Chloé, and Alison M. Bell. "Personality traits change after an opportunity to mate." Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 287, no. 1926 (April 29, 2020): 20192936. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2019.2936.
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There is growing evidence that personality traits can change throughout the life course in humans and nonhuman animals. However, the proximate and ultimate causes of personality trait change are largely unknown, especially in adults. In a controlled, longitudinal experiment, we tested whether a key life event for adults––mating––can cause personality traits to change in female threespine sticklebacks. We confirmed that there are consistent individual differences in activity, sociability and risk-taking, and then compared these personality traits among three groups of females: (i) control females; (ii) females that had physically mated, and (iii) females that had socially experienced courtship but did not mate. Both the physical experience of mating and the social experience of courtship caused females to become less willing to take risks and less social. To understand the proximate mechanisms underlying these changes, we measured levels of excreted steroids. Both the physical experience of mating and the social experience of courtship caused levels of dihydroxyprogesterone (17α,20β-P) to increase, and females with higher 17α,20β-P were less willing to take risks and less social. These results provide experimental evidence that personality traits and their underlying neuroendocrine correlates are influenced by formative social and life-history experiences well into adulthood.
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McGhee, Katie E., Sally Feng, Sagan Leasure, and Alison M. Bell. "A female's past experience with predators affects male courtship and the care her offspring will receive from their father." Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 282, no. 1819 (November 22, 2015): 20151840. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2015.1840.
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Differential allocation occurs when individuals adjust their reproductive investment based on their partner's traits. However, it remains unknown whether animals differentially allocate based on their partner's past experiences with predation risk. If animals can detect a potential mate's experience with predators, this might inform them about the stress level of their potential mate, the likelihood of parental effects in offspring and/or the dangers present in the environment. Using threespined stickleback ( Gasterosteus aculeatus ), we examined whether a female's previous experience with being chased by a model predator while yolking eggs affects male mating effort and offspring care. Males displayed fewer conspicuous courtship behaviours towards females that had experienced predation risk in the past compared with unexposed females. This differential allocation extended to how males cared for the resulting offspring of these matings: fathers provided less parental care to offspring of females that had experienced predation risk in the past. Our results show for the first time, to our knowledge, that variation among females in their predator encounters can contribute to behavioural variation among males in courtship and parental care, even when males themselves do not encounter a predator. These results, together with previous findings, suggest that maternal predator exposure can influence offspring development both directly and indirectly, through how it affects father care.
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Zhao, Songhui, Bryson Deanhardt, George Thomas Barlow, Paulina Guerra Schleske, Anthony M. Rossi, and Pelin C. Volkan. "Chromatin-based reprogramming of a courtship regulator by concurrent pheromone perception and hormone signaling." Science Advances 6, no. 21 (May 2020): eaba6913. http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aba6913.
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To increase fitness, animals use both internal and external states to coordinate reproductive behaviors. The molecular mechanisms underlying this coordination remain unknown. Here, we focused on pheromone-sensing Drosophila Or47b neurons, which exhibit age- and social experience–dependent increase in pheromone responses and courtship advantage in males. FruitlessM (FruM), a master regulator of male courtship behaviors, drives the effects of social experience and age on Or47b neuron responses and function. We show that simultaneous exposure to social experience and age-specific juvenile hormone (JH) induces chromatin-based reprogramming of fruM expression in Or47b neurons. Group housing and JH signaling increase fruM expression in Or47b neurons and active chromatin marks at fruM promoter. Conversely, social isolation or loss of JH signaling decreases fruM expression and increases repressive marks around fruM promoter. Our results suggest that fruM promoter integrates coincident hormone and pheromone signals driving chromatin-based changes in expression and ultimately neuronal and behavioral plasticity.
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Laming, Donald R. J. "On the behavioural interpretation of neurophysiological observation." Behavioral and Brain Sciences 23, no. 2 (April 2000): 209. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0140525x00392421.
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Examples of terror generated by an aircraft disaster, of human courtship behaviour, and of the application of laboratory techniques to the commercial training of animals suggest (1) that emotion is simply the subjective counterpart of (objective) motivation (so that separate brain mechanisms would be an embarrassment) and (2) the apparent involvement of reward and punishment is a consequence of the excessively narrow range of experimental procedures used and has no foundation in the design of the brain.
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Butler, Julie M., and Karen P. Maruska. "Opsin Expression Varies with Reproductive State in the Cichlid Fish Astatotilapia burtoni." Integrative and Comparative Biology 61, no. 1 (July 1, 2021): 240–48. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/icb/icab058.
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Synopsis Animals use visual communication to convey crucial information about their identity, reproductive status, and sex. Plasticity in the auditory and olfactory systems has been well-documented, however, fewer studies have tested for plasticity in the visual system, a surprising detail since courtship and mate choice are largely dependent on visual signals across taxa. We previously found reproductive state-dependent plasticity in the eye of the highly social cichlid fish Astatotilapia burtoni. Male A. burtoni increase their courtship, including multicomponent visual displays, when around ovulated females, and ovulated females are more responsive to male visual courtship displays than non-ovulated females. Based on this, we hypothesized that ovulation status impacts visual capabilities in A. burtoni females. Using electroretinograms, we found that ovulated females had greater visual sensitivity at wavelengths corresponding to male courtship coloration compared with non-reproductively-receptive females. In addition, ovulated females had higher neural activation in the retina and higher mRNA expression levels of neuromodulatory receptors (e.g., sex-steroids; gonadotropins) in the eye than non-ovulated females. Here, we add to this body of work by testing the hypothesis that cone opsin expression changes with female reproductive state. Ovulated females had higher expression of short wavelength sensitive opsins (sws1, sws2a, sws2b) compared with mouthbrooding females. Further, expression of sws2a, the most abundant opsin in the A. burtoni eye, positively correlated with levels of circulating 11-ketotestosterone and estradiol and estrogen, androgen, and gonadotropin system receptor expression in the eye in females. These data indicate that reproductive state-dependent plasticity also occurs at the level of photoreceptors, not just through modulation of visual signals at downstream retinal layers. Collectively, these data provide crucial evidence linking endocrine modulation of visual plasticity to mate choice behaviors in females.
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Parrott, R. F. "Minimal effects of 17β-hydroxy-17α-methyl-estra-4,9,11-triene-3-one (R1881) on sexual behaviour in prepubertally castrated rams." Journal of Endocrinology 110, no. 3 (September 1986): 481–87. http://dx.doi.org/10.1677/joe.0.1100481.
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ABSTRACT Ten adult prepubertally castrated rams were injected with 5α-dihydrotestosterone propionate (DHTP; 20 mg/day) for 3 weeks to stimulate genital development. Thereafter, half of the sheep were injected with testosterone (100 mg/day) for a further 4 weeks, while the remainder received the same dose of 17β-hydroxy-17α-methyl-estra-4,9,11-triene-3-one (methyltrienolone; R1881). All the animals were tested for sexual behaviour on 15 occasions with ovariectomized ewes in which oestrous behaviour was induced by injections of 50 μg oestradiol-17β benzoate at 4- to 5-day intervals. Behavioural tests were of 10 min duration and were carried out thrice weekly over a 5-week period, starting in the final week of DHTP treatment. Animals treated with testosterone showed a highly significant increase in courtship behaviour (tongue-flicks; lunges and nudges) after only four daily injections and this level of activity was maintained to the end of the experiment. However, the incidence of courtship activity in sheep treated with R1881 was similar to that recorded during the period of DHTP treatment. All animals given testosterone displayed mounts with pelvic thrusts and erections, and achieved intromission with ejaculation. These activities remained significantly more frequent than in sheep treated with R1881, starting from tests 9, 8 and 12 respectively. Four of the five individuals in the group given R1881 showed occasional mounts with thrusts, three showed sporadic erections and one sheep intromitted in the final test. These results indicate that, in contrast to the rat, R1881 has only very weak effects on sexual behaviour in the castrated ram. J. Endocr. (1986) 110, 481–487
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Pond, C. M., and E. A. Newsholme. "Coping with metabolic stress in wild and domesticated animals." BSAP Occasional Publication 24 (1999): 9–20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s146398150004303x.
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AbstractEthological and ecological studies of wild animals are producing evidence for metabolic stress during courtship, breeding and parental care comparable with that of domestic livestock. Resistance to disease may be compromised by the demand for fatty acids and proteins during reproduction and even more during lactation. The adipose tissue around major lymph nodes is indistinguishable histologically from that in larger depots. In vitro and in vivo studies reveal that it is specialized to respond to lipolytic agonists secreted by lymphoid cells but is insensitive to the endocrine conditions of short-term fasting. These properties enable it to provision adjacent immune cells. Such adipose tissue may act as a forum for competing demands of mammary glands, muscles etc. and local defences against pathogens. Glutamine is essential to the nutrition of the immune system and is used by the mammary gland. Muscle is the best known source but adipose tissue also participates in glutamine metabolism and may become more important in animals in which the musculature is wasted through prolonged lactation.
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Tanida, H., Y. Murata, T. Tanaka, and T. Yoshimoto. "Mounting efficiencies, courtship behavior and mate preference of boars under multi-sire mating." Applied Animal Behaviour Science 22, no. 3-4 (April 1989): 245–53. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0168-1591(89)90019-1.
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Wilgers, Dustin J., J. Colton Watts, and Eileen A. Hebets. "Habitat complexity and complex signal function – exploring the role of ornamentation." Behavioral Ecology 33, no. 1 (December 15, 2021): 307–17. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arab144.
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Abstract Animals often communicate in complex, heterogeneous environments, leading to hypothesized selection for increased detectability or discriminability in signaling traits. The extent to which secondary sexual ornaments have evolved to overcome the challenges of signaling in complex environments, however, remains understudied, especially in comparison to their role as indicator traits. This study tested the hypothesis that the condition-dependent secondary sexual ornamentation in the wolf spider Rabidosa rabida functions to increase detectability/discriminability in visually complex environments. We predicted that male ornamentation would interact with the complexity of the signaling environment to affect male mating success. In particular, we expected ornaments to confer a greater mating advantage when males courted in visually complex environments. To test this, we artificially manipulated male foreleg ornamentation (present/absent) and ran repeated-measures mating trials across laboratory microcosms that represented simple versus complex visual signaling environments. Microcosm visual complexity differed in their background pattern, grass stem color, and grass stem placement. We found that ornamented males mated more often and more quickly than unornamented males across both environments, but we found no support for an ornament-by-environment interaction. Male courtship rate, however, did interact with the signaling environment. Despite achieving the same level of mating success across signaling environments, ornamented males courted less rapidly in complex versus simple environments, although environmental complexity had no influence on unornamented male courtship rates. Our results suggest that the visual complexity of the signaling environment influences the interactive influence of ornamentation and dynamic visual courtship on female mate choice.
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Dukas, Reuven. "Behavioural and ecological consequences of limited attention." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences 357, no. 1427 (November 29, 2002): 1539–47. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2002.1063.
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Ecological research in the past few decades has shown that most animals acquire and respond adaptively to information that affects survival and reproduction. At the same time, neurobiological studies have established that the rate of information processing by the brain is much lower than the rate at which information is encountered in the environment, and that attentional mechanisms enable the brain to focus only on the most essential information at any given time. Recent integration of the ecological and neurobiological approaches helps us to understand key behaviours with broad ecological and evolutionary implications. Specifically, current data indicate that limited attention affects diet choice and constrains animals‘ ability simultaneously to feed and attend to predators. Recent experiments also suggest that limited attention influences social interactions, courtship and mating behaviour.
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Talyn, Becky, Kelly Muller, Cindy Mercado, Bryan Gonzalez, and Katherine Bartels. "The Herbicide Glyphosate and Its Formulations Impact Animal Behavior across Taxa." Agrochemicals 2, no. 3 (July 10, 2023): 367–408. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/agrochemicals2030022.
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Use of glyphosate and glyphosate-based herbicides is ubiquitous in US agriculture and widespread around the world. Despite marketing efforts to the contrary, numerous studies demonstrate glyphosate toxicity to non-target organisms including animals, primarily focusing on mortality, carcinogenicity, renal toxicity, reproductive, and neurological toxicity, and the biochemical mechanisms underlying these physiological outcomes. Glyphosate toxicity also impacts animal behavior, both in model systems and in agricultural and environmentally relevant contexts. In this review, we examine the effects of glyphosate and glyphosate-based herbicides on animal behaviors, particularly activity, foraging and feeding, anti-predator behavior, reproductive behaviors, learning and memory, and social behaviors. Glyphosate can be detected both in food and in the environment, and avoided through activity and feeding strategies. However, exposure also reduces activity, depresses foraging and feeding, increases susceptibility to predation, interferes with courtship, mating, fertility and maternal behaviors, decreases learning and memory capabilities, and disrupts social behaviors. Changes in animal behavior as a result of glyphosate toxicity are important because of their sometimes severe effects on individual fitness, as well as ecosystem health. Implications for human behavior are also considered.
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Bossuyt, Franky, Lisa M. Schulte, Margo Maex, Sunita Janssenswillen, Polina Yu Novikova, S. D. Biju, Yves Van de Peer, et al. "Multiple Independent Recruitment of Sodefrin Precursor-Like Factors in Anuran Sexually Dimorphic Glands." Molecular Biology and Evolution 36, no. 9 (June 25, 2019): 1921–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msz115.
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Abstract Chemical signaling in animals often plays a central role in eliciting a variety of responses during reproductive interactions between males and females. One of the best-known vertebrate courtship pheromone systems is sodefrin precursor-like factors (SPFs), a family of two-domain three-finger proteins with a female-receptivity enhancing function, currently only known from salamanders. The oldest divergence between active components in a single salamander species dates back to the Late Paleozoic, indicating that these proteins potentially gained a pheromone function earlier in amphibian evolution. Here, we combined whole transcriptome sequencing, proteomics, histology, and molecular phylogenetics in a comparative approach to investigate SPF occurrence in male breeding glands across the evolutionary tree of anurans (frogs and toads). Our study shows that multiple families of both terrestrially and aquatically reproducing frogs have substantially increased expression levels of SPFs in male breeding glands. This suggests that multiple anuran lineages make use of SPFs to complement acoustic and visual sexual signaling during courtship. Comparative analyses show that anurans independently recruited these proteins each time the gland location on the male’s body allowed efficient transmission of the secretion to the female’s nares.
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Watts, Heather E. "Seasonal regulation of behaviour: what role do hormone receptors play?" Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 287, no. 1930 (July 8, 2020): 20200722. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.0722.
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Many animals differentially express behaviours across the annual cycle as life stages are coordinated with seasonal environmental conditions. Understanding of the mechanistic basis of such seasonal changes in behaviour has traditionally focused on the role of changes in circulating hormone levels. However, it is increasingly apparent that other endocrine regulation mechanisms such as changes in local hormone synthesis and receptor abundance also play a role. Here I review what is known about seasonal changes in steroid hormone receptor abundance in relation to seasonal behaviour in vertebrates. I find that there is widespread, though not ubiquitous, seasonal variation in the expression of steroid hormone receptors in the brain, with such variation being best documented in association with courtship, mating and aggression. The most common pattern of seasonal variation is for there to be upregulation of sex steroid receptors with the expression of courtship and mating behaviours, when circulating hormone levels are also high. Less well-documented are cases in which seasonal increases in receptor expression could compensate for low circulating hormone levels or seasonal downregulation that could serve a protective function. I conclude by identifying important directions for future research.
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Amdekar, Madhura S., and Maria Thaker. "Risk of social colours in an agamid lizard: implications for the evolution of dynamic signals." Biology Letters 15, no. 5 (May 15, 2019): 20190207. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2019.0207.
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The forces of sexual and natural selection are typically invoked to explain variation in colour patterns of animals. Although the benefits of conspicuous colours for social signalling are well documented, evidence for their ecological cost, especially for dynamic colours, remains limited. We examined the riskiness of colour patterns of Psammophilus dorsalis , a species in which males express distinct colour combinations during social interactions. We first measured the conspicuousness of these colour patterns on different substrates based on the visual systems of conspecifics and predators (bird, snake, canid) and then quantified actual predation risk on these patterns using wax/polymer lizard models in the wild. The black and red male state exhibited during courtship was the most conspicuous to all visual systems, while the yellow and orange male aggression state and the brown female colour were least conspicuous. Models bearing the courtship colour pattern experienced the highest predator attacks, irrespective of the substrate they were placed on. Thus, social colours of males are not only conspicuous but also risky. Using physiological colours to shift in and out of conspicuous states may be an effective evolutionary solution to balance social signalling benefits with predation costs.
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Dos Anjos Souza, Diego, Maricelma Simiano Jung, and Rodrigo Ávila Mendonça. "Copulation record of Tropidurus imbituba (Squamata: Tropiduridae)." Acta Biológica Catarinense 11, no. 1 (March 22, 2024): 14–18. http://dx.doi.org/10.21726/abc.v11i1.2139.
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Tropidurus imbituba is a lizard with endemic distribution. Data on the species are scarce as it is a new species and has the only known habitat to date. Understanding reproductive aspects is important for their conservation. Thus, the present study presents the first records of the courtship and copulation behavior of T. imbituba. Sampling was carried out in spring 2022 and summer 2023, between September 24, 2022 and March 19, 2023. Monitoring was adapted from the Squamata Reptile Monitoring Protocol in Federal Conservation Units of the Caatinga Biome, following the active search method without time limitation (BANLT), in order to register T. imbituba individuals without any type of physical restraint. The individuals viewed had their coordinates taken with GPS, photographed with a DSLR camera – 65x zoom with a 21 mm ultra-wide angle lens. Viewing was done with the naked eye and with the aid of 8x40 binoculars. In areas with a concentration of lizards, the fixed point methodology was also used for five to 10 minutes, to observe the animals and other important data, where, at opportune moments, filming and photographs of courtship or copulation behavior were recorded.
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Colgan, Patrick W., and Stephen S. Crawford. "Motivational Models of Courtship in Male Threespine Sticklebacks (Gasterosteus Aculeatus)." Behaviour 109, no. 3-4 (1989): 285–302. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/156853989x00286.
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AbstractThe objective of this study was to determine which of the Random, Competition, and Time-sharing models provides the best description of courtship in the male threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus). A critical re-evaluation of experiments in this field revealed both theoretical and methodological difficulties. An attempt was made to correct these problems and provide a more quantitative and statistically valid approach to the motivational study of behavioural switching. Eighteen subjects were tested over four stimulus conditions in a modified double-interruption experiment, where they alternated between courtship and nest-related behaviour. The animals were visually presented with one or three females, with or without eggs in the nest. Assessments of motivational 'dominance' were made on the basis of incomplete visits and variation of visit durations. Data on time budgets, and temporal variability and associations were also analyzed. The results provided little support for the Competition model. In 33 of the 36 sessions, the Random model was accepted as a logical default when the various methods of assessment failed to support, or contradicted the Time-sharing model. The remaining assessments of Time-sharing (both female- and nest-dominant) may be considered as artefacts of the assessment procedure. Four possible explanations of these results were discussed with respect to experimental design and motivational theory.
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Alberghina, Daniela, Eugenia Caudullo, Winnie Y. Chan, Namkhai Bandi, and Michele Panzera. "Acoustic characteristics of courtship and agonistic vocalizations in Przwewalskii's wild horse and in domestic horse." Applied Animal Behaviour Science 174 (January 2016): 70–75. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2015.10.003.
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Blumenthal, Sarah A., and Larry J. Young. "The Neurobiology of Love and Pair Bonding from Human and Animal Perspectives." Biology 12, no. 6 (June 12, 2023): 844. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/biology12060844.
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Love is a powerful emotional experience that is rooted in ancient neurobiological processes shared with other species that pair bond. Considerable insights have been gained into the neural mechanisms driving the evolutionary antecedents of love by studies in animal models of pair bonding, particularly in monogamous species such as prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster). Here, we provide an overview of the roles of oxytocin, dopamine, and vasopressin in regulating neural circuits responsible for generating bonds in animals and humans alike. We begin with the evolutionary origins of bonding in mother–infant relationships and then examine the neurobiological underpinnings of each stage of bonding. Oxytocin and dopamine interact to link the neural representation of partner stimuli with the social reward of courtship and mating to create a nurturing bond between individuals. Vasopressin facilitates mate-guarding behaviors, potentially related to the human experience of jealousy. We further discuss the psychological and physiological stress following partner separation and their adaptive function, as well as evidence of the positive health outcomes associated with being pair-bonded based on both animal and human studies.
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Honda, Takato. "Optogenetic and thermogenetic manipulation of defined neural circuits and behaviors in Drosophila." Learning & Memory 29, no. 4 (March 24, 2022): 100–109. http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/lm.053556.121.
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Neural network dynamics underlying flexible animal behaviors remain elusive. The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster is considered an excellent model in behavioral neuroscience because of its simple neuroanatomical architecture and the availability of various genetic methods. Moreover, Drosophila larvae's transparent body allows investigators to use optical methods on freely moving animals, broadening research directions. Activating or inhibiting well-defined events in excitable cells with a fine temporal resolution using optogenetics and thermogenetics led to the association of functions of defined neural populations with specific behavioral outputs such as the induction of associative memory. Furthermore, combining optogenetics and thermogenetics with state-of-the-art approaches, including connectome mapping and machine learning-based behavioral quantification, might provide a complete view of the experience- and time-dependent variations of behavioral responses. These methodologies allow further understanding of the functional connections between neural circuits and behaviors such as chemosensory, motivational, courtship, and feeding behaviors and sleep, learning, and memory.
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Rowland, Hannah M., and Robert P. Burriss. "Human colour in mate choice and competition." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 372, no. 1724 (May 22, 2017): 20160350. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2016.0350.
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The colour of our skin and clothing affects how others perceive us and how we behave. Human skin colour varies conspicuously with genetic ancestry, but even subtle changes in skin colour due to diet, blood oxygenation and hormone levels influence social perceptions. In this review, we describe the theoretical and empirical frameworks in which human colour is researched. We explore how subtle skin colour differences relate to judgements of health and attractiveness. Also, because humans are one of the few organisms able to manipulate their apparent colour, we review how cosmetics and clothing are implicated in courtship and competition, both inside the laboratory and in the real world. Research on human colour is in its infancy compared with human psychophysics and colour research in non-human animals, and hence we present best-practice guidelines for methods and reporting, which we hope will improve the validity and reproducibility of studies on human coloration. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Animal coloration: production, perception, function and application’.
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Burnard, D., P. C. Hubbard, C. T. Müller, S. W. Griffiths, D. Andreou, M. D. Osselton, A. V. M. Canário, and R. E. Gozlan. "Chemically-mediated sexual display postures in pre-ovulatory female topmouth gudgeon, Pseudorasbora parva." Behaviour 149, no. 9 (2012): 1003–18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1568539x-00003024.
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While mating systems vary considerably throughout the animal kingdom, smell is increasingly recognised as a common factor in successful copulation. However, the full range of olfactory- induced mating behaviours among animals is undoubtedly underestimated in comparison to visual or contact stimuli, and this underestimation suggests that our understanding of courtship rituals may be incomplete. Here, we use the highly invasive topmouth gudgeon, Pseudorasbora parva as a biological model to separate and validate the induction of headstands as courtship behaviour in many fish species. Conspecific odour was isolated using solid phase extraction (SPE) and fractionated using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Active fractions were characterised using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Electrophysiological responses of pre-ovulatory females to conspecific odour were also tested via the electro-olfactogram (EOG). Results revealed that pre-ovulatory females adopted headstand body postures during exposure to nest guarding male odour (4/12) and SPE extract (5/12) but did not display during exposure to any other odour. Fractions from HPLC yielded 1 active fraction that induced headstand body postures in pre-ovulatory females (4/12). The active fraction eluted at 30–35 min and showed no response in the UV. NMR imaging revealed low intensity levels of aliphatic protons: methylene protons (CH2) at around 2 parts per million (ppm) and methin (CH) at around 3 ppm. EOG response amplitudes were approximately double in response to pre-ovulatory female odour than to odour derived from post-ovulatory females (Mann–Whitney U-test, , ). This study provides evidence of sex-specific chemical cues and responsive, adaptive sexual behaviour in P. parva and demonstrates that female display postures may be induced by chemical stimuli alone.
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Schilder, Matthijs B. H. "Interventions in a Herd of Semi-Captive Plains Zebras." Behaviour 112, no. 1-2 (1990): 53–83. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/156853990x00680.
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AbstractIn a herd of semi-captive plains zebras interventions, which occurred within the harems, were investigated in order to answer the question why zebras interfered. These interventions are of interest because they regulate the contacts between companions and because, as corrective and preventive measures, they reveal the normative principles underlying the behaviours by which animals structure their social environment. An attempt was made to deduce 1) the internal norms of the interferer; 2) his short term aims; 3) his tactis and 4) his perception of the social environment. The analysis revealed that in the case of an affiliative interaction foals, yearlings and adult mares started to interfere if a friend had an affiliative contact with another zebra. In view of the interferer's behaviours it was concluded that their aim was to break off the ongoing interaction and that zebras tended to protect friendship bonds. Foals and yearlings further interfered if their mother was being threatened, attacked or sexually approached by a stallion. In view of the interferer's behaviours its aim was to prevent iminent interactions or to break off ongoing interactions. This suggests that these interventions were of a protective nature. The interferer's behaviours in both contexts ware very much alike. Mares tended to interfere if their foal/yearling or adult daughter was threathened or aggressed or if a mare friend was being sexually approached by a stallion. This type of intervention was of a protective nature. Stallions in a multi male harem showed a high tendency to interfere in courtship interactions. From the resemblance between interventions in courtship and in aggressive interactions it is concluded that, at leat in a number of cases, the individuals have perceived courtship behaviour by the stallion as a threat towards the mare involved.
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Bastian, Joseph, Stephanie Schniederjan, and Jerry Nguyenkim. "Arginine Vasotocin Modulates a Sexually Dimorphic Communication Behavior in the Weakly Electric fish APTERONOTUS LEPTORHYNCHUS." Journal of Experimental Biology 204, no. 11 (June 1, 2001): 1909–23. http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/jeb.204.11.1909.
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SUMMARY South American weakly electric fish produce a variety of electric organ discharge (EOD) amplitude and frequency modulations including chirps or rapid increases in EOD frequency that function as agonistic and courtship and mating displays. In Apteronotus leptorhynchus, chirps are readily evoked by the presence of the EOD of a conspecific or a sinusoidal signal designed to mimic another EOD, and we found that the frequency difference between the discharge of a given animal and that of an EOD mimic is important in determining which of two categories of chirp an animal will produce. Type-I chirps (EOD frequency increases averaging 650Hz and lasting approximately 25ms) are preferentially produced by males in response to EOD mimics with a frequency of 50–200Hz higher or lower than that of their own. The EOD frequency of Apteronotus leptorhynchus is sexually dimorphic: female EODs range from 600 to 800Hz and male EODs range from 800 to 1000Hz. Hence, EOD frequency differences effective in evoking type-I chirps are most likely to occur during male/female interactions. This result supports previous observations that type-I chirps are emitted most often during courtship and mating. Type-II chirps, which consist of shorter-duration frequency increases of approximately 100Hz, occur preferentially in response to EOD mimics that differ from the EOD of the animal by 10–15Hz. Hence these are preferentially evoked when animals of the same sex interact and, as previously suggested, probably represent agonistic displays. Females typically produced only type-II chirps. We also investigated the effects of arginine vasotocin on chirping. This peptide is known to modulate communication and other types of behavior in many species, and we found that arginine vasotocin decreased the production of type-II chirps by males and also increased the production of type-I chirps in a subset of males. The chirping of most females was not significantly affected by arginine vasotocin.
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Friesen, Christopher R., Emily J. Uhrig, and Robert T. Mason. "Dehydrated males are less likely to dive into the mating pool." Behavioral Ecology 33, no. 2 (December 31, 2021): 436–45. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arab151.
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Abstract The hydration state of animals vying for reproductive success may have implications for the tempo and mode of sexual selection, which may be salient in populations that experience increasing environmental fluctuations in water availability. Using red-sided garter snakes as a model system, we tested the effect of water supplementation on courtship, mating behavior, and copulatory plug (CP) production during a drought year. Over 3 days of mating trials, water-supplemented males (WET males, n = 45) outperformed a control group that was not supplemented with water (DRY males, n = 45). Over 70% of WET males mated but just 33% of DRY males did so. As a group, WET males mated 79 times versus 28 times by DRY males. On the last day of mating trials, over 70% of WET males were still courting, with 19 of them mating, whereas less than 25% of DRY males were courting and only one mated. CP deposition accounted for 4–6% of the mass lost by mating males, but hydration did not affect CP mass or water content. These findings suggest that, in years of low water availability, the number of courting males and the intensity of their courtship declines, thereby affecting sexual selection and conflict, at least within that year.
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Golab, Maria J., Szymon Sniegula, and Tomas Brodin. "Cross-Latitude Behavioural Axis in an Adult Damselfly Calopteryx splendens (Harris, 1780)." Insects 13, no. 4 (March 31, 2022): 342. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects13040342.
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Behavioural variation is important for evolutionary and ecological processes, but can also be useful when predicting consequences of climate change and effects on species ranges. Latitudinal differences in behaviour have received relatively limited research interest when compared to morphological, life history and physiological traits. This study examined differences in expression of three behavioural axes: activity, courtship and boldness, and their correlations, along a European latitudinal gradient spanning ca. 1500 km. The study organism was the temperate damselfly Calopteryx splendens (Harris). We predicted that the expression of both behavioural traits and behavioural syndromes would be positively correlated to latitude, with the lowest values in the southern populations, followed by central and the highest in the north, because animals usually compensate behaviourally for increasing time constraints and declining environmental conditions. We found that behavioural expression varied along the latitudinal cline, although not always in the predicted direction. Activity was the only behaviour that followed our prediction and gradually increased northward. Whereas no south-to-north gradient was seen in any of the behavioural syndromes. The results, particularly for activity, suggest that climatic differences across latitudes change behavioural profiles. However, for other traits such as courtship and boldness, local factors might invoke stronger selection pressures, disrupting the predicted latitudinal pattern.
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Millot, Morgane, Ana M. Faria, and M. Clara P. Amorim. "Mating sounds in the two-spotted goby, Pomatoschistus flavescens: Effects of water temperature on acoustic features." Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 154, no. 4 (October 1, 2023): 2642–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1121/10.0021888.
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Acoustic signals in teleost fishes play a fundamental role in reproduction. As fish are ectothermic animals, temperature has the potential to change their signal production and detection, with further implications for mating interactions. In this study, we describe the mating sounds made by the two-spotted goby, Pomatoschistus flavescens, for the first time and further investigate the effect of temperature on the acoustic features. Courtship sounds of 15 two-spotted goby males were recorded at three different temperatures: 16 °C, 19 °C, and 21 °C. As seen for other marine gobies, two-spotted goby produced two courtship sounds: drums and thumps. Drums showed similar acoustic features to other Pomatoschistus species already studied. Calling rates for both kinds of sound were not affected by the increases in temperature. However, pulse rate increased from 16 °C to 19 °C and stabilised between 19 °C and 21 °C, suggesting that two-spotted gobies reached their physiological limits at 19 °C. Spectral features were also affected by temperature, presenting higher values at 19 °C. Whether or not the observed changes in acoustic features with temperature lead to changes in mating remains to be addressed. Studies like the present one are fundamental to better comprehend how reproduction will be affected by global warming in soniferous fishes.
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Noureddine, Maher, Fred Singer, Anthony Morris, Elizabeth Becker, Susan Riechert, Hongfa Xu, and Jeanette Hale. "ANALYSIS OF COURTSHIP SUCCESS IN THE FUNNEL-WEB SPIDER AGELENOPSIS APERTA." Behaviour 137, no. 1 (2000): 93–117. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/156853900501890.
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AbstractLaboratory studies of the funnel-web spider Agelenopsis aperta were conducted to determine the action patterns displayed by males and females during courtship, and to identify the elements of courtship associated with subsequent acceptance by the female. When placed on a female's web, a male usually went through a courtship sequence that included lateral swaying of his abdomen and flexing the web with his walking legs. These displays were punctuated with rest periods of varying duration. In all successful matings, females entered a cataleptic state in which they collapsed and appeared unconscious. In some courtships, males began mating with the female immediately after inducing catalepsis. But in most successful courtships (79%) males abandoned the cataleptic female and resumed the courtship sequence. Successful males were more active than unsuccessful males during the early stages of courtship. Successful males also tended to sway their abdomens with higher frequency than unsuccessful males during the courtship dance. We hypothesize that females are selecting males on the basis of vibratory performance during courtship, but that other factors, including chemical communication, may also play a role in mate selection.
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Carouso-Peck, Samantha, Michael H. Goldstein, and W. Tecumseh Fitch. "The many functions of vocal learning." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 376, no. 1836 (September 6, 2021): 20200235. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0235.
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The capacity to learn novel vocalizations has evolved convergently in a wide range of species. Courtship songs of male birds or whales are often treated as prototypical examples, implying a sexually selected context for the evolution of this ability. However, functions of learned vocalizations in different species are far more diverse than courtship, spanning a range of socio-positive contexts from individual identification, social cohesion, or advertising pair bonds, as well as agonistic contexts such as territorial defence, deceptive alarm calling or luring prey. Here, we survey the diverse usages and proposed functions of learned novel signals, to build a framework for considering the evolution of vocal learning capacities that extends beyond sexual selection. For each function that can be identified for learned signals, we provide examples of species using unlearned signals to accomplish the same goals. We use such comparisons to generate hypotheses concerning when vocal learning is adaptive, given a particular suite of socio-ecological traits. Finally, we identify areas of uncertainty where improved understanding would allow us to better test these hypotheses. Considering the broad range of potential functions of vocal learning will yield a richer appreciation of its evolution than a narrow focus on a few prototypical species. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Vocal learning in animals and humans’.
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Sasahara, Kazutoshi, and Takashi Ikegami. "Evolution of Birdsong Syntax by Interjection Communication." Artificial Life 13, no. 3 (July 2007): 259–77. http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/artl.2007.13.3.259.
Full textAbstract:
Animals use diverse forms of communication, from sound signals to body postures. Recent ethological studies have reported a unique syntactic communication of a songbird, the Bengalese finch (Lonchura striata var. domestica). Male Bengalese finches sing complex courtship songs, which can be reconstructed by finite automata, and female Bengalese finches prefer complex songs, as opposed to monotonous or random ones. These facts suggest that the song syntaxes of male birds may have evolved as a result of sexual selection by female birds. Inspired by this hypothesis, we developed a communication model that is a system coupling different types of automaton, one for song production by males and another for song evaluation by females. We applied this model to study the evolution of syntactic animal communication in terms of the self-organization of coevolving automata. Three types of courting strategies as well as a relationship between the song syntax and female preference emerged. We argue that despite the simple communication involved, the complexity and diversity of song syntaxes can evolve via diverse female preferences.
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Ungerfeld, Rodolfo, María Alejandra Ramos, and Richard Möller. "Role of the vomeronasal organ on ram's courtship and mating behaviour, and on mate choice among oestrous ewes." Applied Animal Behaviour Science 99, no. 3-4 (September 2006): 248–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2005.10.016.
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GUERRA, R. F., E. TAKASE, and C. V. SANTOS. "Cross-fostering between two species of marmosets (Callithrix jacchus and Callithrix penicillata)." Revista Brasileira de Biologia 58, no. 4 (November 1998): 665–69. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/s0034-71081998000400014.
Full textAbstract:
Cross-fostering technique can be defined as adoption of infants by adults of other species. This phenomenon is poorly investigated because very young animals have few opportunities to interact peacefully with non-conspecific adults, either in captivity or in natural conditions. This study describes the induction of cross-fostering in captivity between white tufted-ear (Callithrix jacchus) and black tufted-ear marmosets (Callithrix penicillata). We conclude that this technique can be very useful for preserving the life of rejected by parents or orphan infants, mainly in the case of species with low reproduction rate in captivity or those threatened by extinction, as well for investigating the environmental effects on the typical behavior of species (courtship, food preference, vocalization patterns, e.g.).