Shared songs are of lower performance in the dark-eyed junco.

ABSTRACT: Social learning enables the adjustment of behaviour to complex social and ecological tasks, and underlies cultural traditions. Understanding when animals use social learning versus other forms of behavioural development can help explain the dynamics of animal culture. The dark-eyed junco (Junco hyemalis) is a songbird with weak cultural song traditions because, in addition to learning songs socially, male juncos also invent or improvise novel songs. We compared songs shared by multiple males (i.e. socially learned) with songs recorded from only one male in the population (many of which should be novel) to gain insight into the advantages of social learning versus invention or improvisation. Song types shared by multiple males were on average of lower performance, on aspects of vocal perfor

SUBMITTER: Cardoso GC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4968478 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature