Sex-Specific Audience Effect in the Context of Mate Choice in Zebra Finches.

ABSTRACT: Animals observing conspecifics during mate choice can gain additional information about potential mates. However, the presence of an observer, if detected by the observed individuals, can influence the nature of the behavior of the observed individuals, called audience effect. In zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata castanotis), domesticated males show an audience effect during mate choice. However, whether male and female descendants of the wild form show an audience effect during mate choice is unknown. Therefore, we conducted an experiment where male and female focal birds could choose between two distinctive phenotypes of the opposite sex, an artificially adorned stimulus bird with a red feather on the forehead and an unadorned stimulus bird, two times consecutively, once without an audi

SUBMITTER: Kniel N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4739725 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature