scholarly journals Aggressiveness, reliable signaling and survival in a wild songbird

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Çağlar Akçay ◽  
S. Elizabeth Campbell ◽  
Michael D. Beecher
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Melospiza Melodia ◽  
Honest Signaling ◽  
Major Question ◽  
Aggressive Interactions ◽  
Song Sparrows ◽  
Fitness Consequences ◽  
High Aggression ◽  
Reliable Signaling

The evolution and maintenance of honest or reliable signaling has been a major question in evolutionary biology. The question is especially puzzling for a particular class of signals used in aggressive interactions: threat signals. Here we report a study on song sparrows (Melospiza melodia) in which we assayed males with playbacks in their territories to quantify their aggressiveness and aggressive signaling levels and asked whether these affect their survival on territory. We found that the effect on survival of residual signaling (signaling above or below the level predicted by their aggressiveness) depended on aggression levels such that among males with low aggression, those with higher residual signaling scores had higher survival. The residual signaling did not have a strong effect among high aggression males. Aggressiveness by itself did not have an effect on survival. These results present a first step in understanding the fitness consequences of honest signaling in aggressive contexts.

scholarly journals The fitness consequences of honesty: under-signalers have a survival advantage in song sparrows

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Çağlar Akçay ◽  
S. Elizabeth Campbell ◽  
Michael D. Beecher
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Survival Advantage ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Major Question ◽  
Song Sparrows ◽  
Soft Song ◽  
High Aggression ◽  
Close Range ◽  
Low Levels ◽  
Reliable Signaling

How honest or reliable signaling can evolve and be maintained has been a major question in evolutionary biology. The question is especially puzzling for a particular class of signals used in aggressive interactions: threat signals. Here we report a study on song sparrows (Melospiza melodia) in which we assayed males with playbacks on their territories to quantify their aggressiveness (flights and close proximity) and aggressive signaling levels (rates of soft song, a close range signal reliably predicting attack) and asked whether these traits affect individuals’ survival on territory. We found that the effect of aggressive signaling via soft song interacted with aggressive behaviors such that there was a negative correlational selection: among males with low aggression, those males that signaled at higher levels (over-signalers) had higher survival whereas among males with high aggression those that signaled at low levels (under-signalers) survived longer. In other words, males who deviate from reliable signaling have a survival advantage. These results, along with previous research that suggested most of the deviation from reliable signaling in this system is in the form of under-signaling (high aggression males signaling at low levels) pose a puzzle for future research on how this reliable signaling system is maintained.

scholarly journals The fitness consequences of honesty: under-signalers have a survival advantage in song sparrows

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Çağlar Akçay ◽  
S. Elizabeth Campbell ◽  
Michael D. Beecher
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Survival Advantage ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Major Question ◽  
Song Sparrows ◽  
Soft Song ◽  
High Aggression ◽  
Close Range ◽  
Low Levels ◽  
Reliable Signaling

How honest or reliable signaling can evolve and be maintained has been a major question in evolutionary biology. The question is especially puzzling for a particular class of signals used in aggressive interactions: threat signals. Here we report a study on song sparrows (Melospiza melodia) in which we assayed males with playbacks on their territories to quantify their aggressiveness (flights and close proximity) and aggressive signaling levels (rates of soft song, a close range signal reliably predicting attack) and asked whether these traits affect individuals’ survival on territory. We found that the effect of aggressive signaling via soft song interacted with aggressive behaviors such that there was a negative correlational selection: among males with low aggression, those males that signaled at higher levels (over-signalers) had higher survival whereas among males with high aggression those that signaled at low levels (under-signalers) survived longer. In other words, males who deviate from reliable signaling have a survival advantage. These results, along with previous research that suggested most of the deviation from reliable signaling in this system is in the form of under-signaling (high aggression males signaling at low levels) pose a puzzle for future research on how this reliable signaling system is maintained.

scholarly journals Aggressiveness, reliable signaling and survival in a wild songbird

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Çağlar Akçay ◽  
S. Elizabeth Campbell ◽  
Michael D. Beecher
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Major Question ◽  
Song Sparrows ◽  
Soft Song ◽  
Close Proximity ◽  
High Aggression ◽  
Close Range ◽  
Low Levels ◽  
Reliable Signaling

The evolution and maintenance of honest or reliable signaling has been a major question in evolutionary biology. The question is especially puzzling for a particular class of signals used in aggressive interactions: threat signals. Here we report a study on song sparrows (Melospiza melodia) in which we assayed males with playbacks in their territories to quantify their aggressiveness (flights, and close proximity) and aggressive signaling levels (rates of soft song, a close range signal reliably predicting attack) and asked whether these traits affect individuals’ survival on territory. We found that the effect of aggressive signaling via soft song interacted with aggressive behaviors such that there was a negative correlational selection: among males with low aggression, those males that signaled at higher levels (over-signalers) had higher survival whereas among males with high aggression those that signaled at low levels (under-signalers) survived longer. In other words, males who deviate from reliable signaling have a survival advantage. These results, along with previous research that suggested most of the deviation from reliable signaling in this system is in the form of under-signaling (high aggression males signaling at low levels) pose a puzzle for future research on how this reliable signaling system is maintained.

scholarly journals Song sparrows Melospiza melodia have a home-field advantage in defending against sympatric malarial parasites

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (8) ◽  
pp. 160216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanina Sarquis-Adamson ◽  
Elizabeth A. MacDougall-Shackleton
Keyword(s):  
Melospiza Melodia ◽  
The Other ◽  
Ecological Interactions ◽  
Breeding Sites ◽  
Song Sparrows ◽  
Capture Site ◽  
Fitness Consequences ◽  
Home Field Advantage ◽  
Fitness Consequence ◽  
Host Parasite

Hosts and parasites interact on both evolutionary and ecological timescales. The outcome of these interactions, specifically whether hosts are more resistant to their local parasites (sympatric) than to parasites from another location (allopatric), is likely to affect the spread of infectious disease and the fitness consequences of host dispersal. We conducted a cross-infection experiment to determine whether song sparrows ( Melospiza melodia ) have an advantage in dealing with sympatric parasites. We captured birds from two breeding sites 437 km apart, and inoculated them with avian malaria ( Plasmodium spp.) cultured either from their capture site or from the other site. Infection risk was lower for birds exposed to sympatric than to allopatric Plasmodium lineages, suggesting that song sparrows may have a home-field advantage in defending against local parasite strains. This pattern was more pronounced at one capture site than at the other, consistent with mosaic models of host–parasite interactions. Home-field advantage may arise from evolutionary processes, whereby host populations become adapted to their local parasites, and/or from ecological interactions, whereby host individuals develop resistance to the local parasites through previous immune exposure. Our findings suggest that greater susceptibility to novel parasites may represent a fitness consequence of natal dispersal.

scholarly journals Bird Song Learning is Mutually Beneficial for Tutee and Tutor

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael D. Beecher ◽  
Çağlar Akçay ◽  
S. Elizabeth Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Field Study ◽  
Bird Song ◽  
Song Learning ◽  
Melospiza Melodia ◽  
The Other ◽  
Mutual Benefit ◽  
Young Bird ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Song Sparrows ◽  
Fitness Consequences

AbstractSong learning is generally assumed to be beneficial for a young songbird, but merely incidental, without costs or benefits, for the older song ‘tutors’. In the present study we contrast two mutually exclusive hypotheses about the tutor/tutee relationship: (1) that it is cooperative, or at least mutually tolerant, with tutor and tutee mutually benefiting from their relationship, vs. (2) that it is competitive, with tutor and tutee competing over territory, so that one or the other suffers negative fitness consequences of their relationship. In a field study of three consecutive cohorts of song sparrows (Melospiza melodia) we determined the older bird (primary tutor) from whom the young bird (tutee) learned most of his songs, and how long tutee and primary tutor survived subsequently. We found that the more songs a tutee learns from his primary tutor, the longer their mutual survival on their respective territories. This study provides the first evidence of a mutual benefit of bird song learning and teaching in nature.

scholarly journals Resolving the conundrum of inbreeding depression but no inbreeding avoidance: Estimating sex-specific selection on inbreeding by song sparrows (Melospiza melodia)

Evolution ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 69 (11) ◽  
pp. 2846-2861 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane M. Reid ◽  
Peter Arcese ◽  
Greta Bocedi ◽  
A. Bradley Duthie ◽  
Matthew E. Wolak ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Inbreeding Depression ◽  
Inbreeding Avoidance ◽  
Melospiza Melodia ◽  
Song Sparrows

Husbandry of wild-caught song sparrows (Melospiza melodia )

Zoo Biology ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 206-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lori Smith ◽  
Sara Hallager ◽  
Erin Kendrick ◽  
Katharine Hope ◽  
Raymond M. Danner
Keyword(s):  
Melospiza Melodia ◽  
Song Sparrows

scholarly journals Fitness Correlates of Song Repertoire Size in Free‐Living Song Sparrows (Melospiza melodia)

2005 ◽  
Vol 165 (3) ◽  
pp. 299-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane M. Reid ◽  
Peter Arcese ◽  
Alice L. E. V. Cassidy ◽  
Sara M. Hiebert ◽  
James N. M. Smith ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Melospiza Melodia ◽  
Repertoire Size ◽  
Free Living ◽  
Song Repertoire ◽  
Song Sparrows

scholarly journals Long-term maternal effect on offspring immune response in song sparrows Melospiza melodia

2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 573-576 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane M Reid ◽  
Peter Arcese ◽  
Lukas F Keller ◽  
Dennis Hasselquist
Keyword(s):  
Immune Response ◽  
Time Scales ◽  
Parasitic Infection ◽  
Antibody Responses ◽  
Melospiza Melodia ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Free Living ◽  
Humoral Immune ◽  
Song Sparrows

Knowledge of the causes of variation in host immunity to parasitic infection and the time-scales over which variation persists, is integral to predicting the evolutionary and epidemiological consequences of host–parasite interactions. It is clear that offspring immunity can be influenced by parental immune experience, for example, reflecting transfer of antibodies from mothers to young offspring. However, it is less clear whether such parental effects persist or have functional consequences over longer time-scales, linking a parent's previous immune experience to future immune responsiveness in fully grown offspring. We used free-living song sparrows ( Melospiza melodia ) to quantify long-term effects of parental immune experience on offspring immune response. We experimentally vaccinated parents with a novel antigen and tested whether parental vaccination influenced the humoral antibody response mounted by fully grown offspring hatched the following year. Parental vaccination did not influence offspring baseline antibody titres. However, offspring of vaccinated mothers mounted substantially stronger antibody responses than offspring of unvaccinated mothers. Antibody responses did not differ between offspring of vaccinated and unvaccinated fathers. These data demonstrate substantial long-term effects of maternal immune experience on the humoral immune response of fully grown offspring in free-living birds.

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