You are here
Home ยป Is Bird Song a Reliable Signal of Aggressive Intent? A Reply
Is Bird Song a Reliable Signal of Aggressive Intent? A Reply
Publication Type: | Journal Article |
Year of Publication: | 2008 |
Authors: | Searcy, WA, Anderson, RC, Nowicki, S |
Journal: | Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology |
Volume: | 62 |
Issue: | 7 |
Date Published: | 2008 |
ISBN Number: | 03405443 |
Keywords: | Columba, Columba palumbus, Columbidae, Emberizidae, Melospiza, Melospiza melodia |
Abstract: | We advocate assessing the reliability of signals of aggressive intent by eliciting aggressive signaling from a subject, giving the subject an opportunity to attack a model, and testing whether the subject's displays predict a subsequent attack. Using this design, we found that most singing behaviors are poor predictors of attack in song sparrows (Melospiza melodia). Laidre and Vehrencamp (Behav Ecol Sociobiol, DOI 10.1007/s00265-007-0539-3, 2008) suggested altering our experimental design to make the model more realistic; it remains to be seen whether such design changes would change the association between display and attack. Laidre and Vehrencamp (Behav Ecol Sociobiol, DOI 10.1007/s00265-007-0539-3, 2008) also suggested that the reliability of soft song, the one display that predicts attack in song sparrows, can be explained by a vulnerability cost. We question the rationale for a vulnerability cost for this display and suggest instead that soft song has a competing functions cost, in that, by using soft song to counter an intruder, a male sacrifices other possible functions of vocal signaling. |
URL: | http://www.jstor.org/stable/40295145 |
Short Title: | Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology |
Scratchpads developed and conceived by (alphabetical):
Ed Baker,
Katherine Bouton
Alice Heaton
Dimitris Koureas,
Laurence Livermore,
Dave Roberts,
Simon Rycroft,
Ben Scott,
Vince Smith