Female Sexual Preferences Toward Conspecific and Hybrid Male Mating Calls in Two Species of Polygynous Deer, Cervus elaphus and C. nippon.

ABSTRACT: The behavioral processes at the basis of hybridization and introgression are understudied in terrestrial mammals. We use a unique model to test the role of sexual signals as a reproductive barrier to introgression by investigating behavioral responses to male sexual calls in estrous females of two naturally allopatric but reproductively compatible deer species, red deer and sika deer. Previous studies demonstrated asymmetries in acoustic species discrimination between these species: most but not all female red deer prefer conspecific over sika deer male calls while female sika deer exhibit no preference differences. Here, we extend this examination of acoustic species discrimination to the role of male sexual calls in introgression between parent species and hybrids. Using two-speaker play

SUBMITTER: Wyman MT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4860407 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature