Animals can vary signal amplitude with receiver distance: evidence from zebra finch song
Section snippets
Subjects
We tested 20 male zebra finches, which were each presented with a female. Before the experiments, male and female birds were kept separately in single-sex flocks (N = 31 males, 20 females) in two aviaries (each 1.7 × 2.5 m and 2 m high) that allowed auditory but no visual contact. Both aviaries were fitted with several natural perches, such as branches from apple or ash trees. All birds were maintained on a 12:12 h light:dark schedule under full-spectrum lights, with air temperature ranging between 20
Results
Almost all males directed song to the female when she was presented at the shortest range of 40 cm, but fewer males did so with increasing communication distance (chi-square test: , P < 0.01; Fig. 2). Between males, the number of song elements per phrase varied from three to nine, with the majority of birds (N = 8) having five. Zebra finches have only one song type, and all birds sang the same song invariably (i.e. the same number of elements per phrase, with the same syntax), regardless of
Discussion
This study found that male zebra finches were more likely to direct song to females that were in closer proximity. This result supports the hypothesis from field observations (Zann 1996) that directed song is a short-range signal. Furthermore, males adjusted their song amplitude depending on the communication distance so that they produced louder songs when the addressed female was further away. This result indicates that zebra finches, like humans, respond to differences in receiver distance
Acknowledgments
We thank Marc Naguib, Nicolas Mathevon and an anonymous referee for very helpful comments, Roger Mundry for statistical advice and Nigel Mann for the zebra finch drawing used in Fig. 2. H.B. was supported by an Emmy Noether fellowship from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (award BR 2309/2-1).
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