Learning enhances female control over reproductive investment in the Japanese quail

Abstract

The adaptive significance of learning is supported by studies showing its positive effects on mating behaviour, but they rarely go beyond fertilization success. Here we studied how learning contributes to qualitative reproductive investment, by testing the hypothesis that mating in the context that predicts male appearance has positive effects on female reproductive investment compared with unsignalled mating. Using Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica), we found that effects of mating in the context predicting mating opportunity depend on female body condition and receptivity, while the outcome of unexpected mating depends on male behaviour. In particular, among females mated with the familiar male in the context predicting that he will appear, female condition positively affected the number of fertilized eggs and egg mass and more receptive females tended to produce more sons. Additionally, conditioned females laid heavier eggs for daughters than for sons. In contrast, in females that were mated unexpectedly and with a novel male, the number of fertilized eggs was highly dependent on male behaviour and was negatively related to maternal body condition. Egg mass was not related to body condition, and there were no indications of sex allocation. This is, to our knowledge, the first study demonstrating how female body condition and behaviour interact with the context of mating in shaping maternal reproductive investment.