Female Choice Behaviour Research Articles

Colour Cues That Are Not Directly Attached to the Body of Males Do Not Influence the Mate Choice of Zebra Finches.

Mate choice decisions of female zebra finches are generally thought to rely on the assessment of male quality, which includes the specific ornamentation of males. A commonly used paradigm to experimentally manipulate a male’s attractiveness is to add a coloured leg ring to the bird. Some studies have shown that female zebra finches prefer or alter their investment in males that have an additional red leg ring compared with males with green leg rings. Whether the coloured artificial ornaments need to be attached to the male’s body or whether environmental colouration could have a similar effect on male attractiveness remains unclear. Here, I investigated this novel context to determine whether female choice between males is affected by environmental colour cues that are not directly attached to the male’s body in four experiments involving 220 zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata).A first experiment revealed that females chose males with red colour cues in the environmental background over males with green cues in the background. Based on this finding, I conducted follow-up experiments to obtain a deeper understanding of how environmental colour cues affect mate choice. Therefore, I examined whether female choice behaviour or male behaviour was altered in two additional experiments. Both experiments failed to show any effects of environmental colour cues on female choice or on male behaviour. Therefore, I replicated the initial experiment in a fourth experiment. Again replication failed; thus, the initial results indicating that environmental colouration affects mate choice behaviour of female zebra finches were not supported by the three subsequent experiments; thus, the outcome of the first experiment seems to be a false positive. Taking my results together, I found no robust support for the idea that environmental colour cues that are not directly attached to the body of male zebra finches affect female mate choice decisions.

A gain control mechanism governs the weighting of acoustic signal intensity and attractiveness during female decisions

In many acoustical communication systems song signals serve for mate selection. Animals thus need to make a decision about which is the best mating partner in a choice situation by integrating the cues of the available signals. In female crickets, choice behaviour is based on the attractiveness of the temporal pattern of a male's calling song and on its intensity. Signal intensity is affected by both sound amplitude and sound energy as given by the amplitude modulation. Here we targeted the psychometric functions that relate these physical cues to sensory perception in female crickets, Gryllus bimaculatus. First, no-choice tests were conducted to examine the response functions for pattern attractiveness and intensity. Second, we systematically varied pattern attractiveness and sound amplitude or sound energy of two competing signals which were presented from opposite sides in a choice situation. To examine the relative contribution of both cues to female choice behaviour an equivalence function for pattern attractiveness and signal intensity was derived which indicated at which levels both cues compensated for each other. The psychometric data and the equivalence function revealed that for patterns of high attractiveness there was a strong impact of even small intensity differences, whereas for patterns with low attractiveness large intensity differences were required to influence female decisions. Thus the integration of pattern attractiveness and intensity is provided by a gain control mechanism that reflects a nonlinear weighting of intensity differences by pattern attractiveness.

Cricket Responses to Sexual Signals are Influenced More by Adult than Juvenile Experiences

Behavioral plasticity can occur on multiple timescales, from traits fixed during development to traits that remain plastic throughout an individual’s lifetime. Because mate choice is a key factor in determining selection on male ornaments, understanding the timescale of plasticity in female choice behavior is critical to understanding how this plasticity influences selection. Experience of sexual signals during both the juvenile and adult stages often shapes mating behavior, but the relative importance of experience during each stage is unclear. Does mate preference become fixed during development or does it remain plastic throughout adulthood? We manipulated the perceived social environment of female Pacific field crickets (Teleogryllus oceanicus) by exposing them to either song or silence during the juvenile and adult stages. Exposure to song during the adult stage significantly decreased measures of responsiveness to calling song, while experience of calling songs during the juvenile stage resulted in a suggestive but non-significant reduction in measures of responsiveness. Mate choice behaviors of adult female crickets are therefore predicted to track changes in their environments’ fluctuating demographics, and this plasticity may have important evolutionary implications.

Mate choice for a male carotenoid-based ornament is linked to female dietary carotenoid intake and accumulation

BackgroundThe coevolution of male traits and female mate preferences has led to the elaboration and diversification of sexually selected traits; however the mechanisms that mediate trait-preference coevolution are largely unknown. Carotenoid acquisition and accumulation are key determinants of the expression of male sexually selected carotenoid-based coloration and a primary mechanism maintaining the honest information content of these signals. Carotenoids also influence female health and reproduction in ways that may alter the costs and benefits of mate choice behaviours and thus provide a potential biochemical link between the expression of male traits and female preferences. To test this hypothesis, we manipulated the dietary carotenoid levels of captive female house finches (Carpodacus mexicanus) and assessed their mate choice behavior in response to color-manipulated male finches.ResultsFemales preferred to associate with red males, but carotenoid supplementation did not influence the direction or strength of this preference. Females receiving a low-carotenoid diet were less responsive to males in general, and discrimination among the colorful males was positively linked to female plasma carotenoid levels at the beginning of the study when the diet of all birds was carotenoid-limited.ConclusionsAlthough female preference for red males was not influenced by carotenoid intake, changes in mating responsiveness and discrimination linked to female carotenoid status may alter how this preference is translated into choice. The reddest males, with the most carotenoid rich plumage, tend to pair early in the breeding season. If carotenoid-related variations in female choice behaviour shift the timing of pairing, then they have the potential to promote assortative mating by carotenoid status and drive the evolution of carotenoid-based male plumage coloration.

Female prairie vole mate-choice is affected by the males’ birth litter composition

Experimental testing and retrospective examination of breeding records were used to examine the influence of sex composition and/or size of males’ birth litters on female mate-choice. Sexually naïve female prairie voles ( Microtus ochrogaster) avoided males derived from all-male litters, but showed no preference for, or aversion to, males from single-male litters or from more typical mixed-sex litters. Examination of the pregnancy status of females after two weeks of pairing with a male allowed us to estimate the probabilites of a pups’ intrauterine position relative to siblings for various litter sizes. The typical prairie vole pup derived from a mixed-sex litter comprised of 4.4 pups, and had a 13% chance of being isolated from siblings in utero and a 22% chance of being between siblings in utero. Pups from single-sex litters tended to be larger at weaning than did pups from mixed-sex litters; however, male size did not influence female choice behavior. These results suggest that some aspect of the perinatal experience of prairie vole pups from single sex litters can influence social interactions later in life.

Female Canaries (Serinus canaria) Associate more with Males that Contrast Strongly against the Background

AbstractMale birds with bright plumage colors which entail production costs and increased predation risks should be able to emphasize the handicap function of their ornaments when they present themselves against a contrasting background. Contrast with the background may accentuate the signal's costliness and make the male more conspicuous to predators. Both effects should contribute to increase male attractiveness. It is therefore conceivable that the extent to which the male plumage contrasts against the background modifies female choice behavior as it improves the discrimination of mates. We tested this hypothesis in domesticated canaries (Serinus canaria). In the first experiment, yellow females could choose between two yellow males presented in front of a yellow and a white background, respectively. In the second experiment we replaced the yellow males with white ones. In experiment 1 females associated significantly more with yellow males which contrasted strongly against the white background. In experiment 2 there was at least a trend for preferred associations with the white male in front of the yellow background. We found no support that male properties per se were chosen. We could further clarify that females associated with the contrasting male and not with a particular background color. Thus, our study demonstrates that not only inherent properties of the sender but also the interaction of bird color with the signaling environment may influence mate choice.

Tibial coloration, fluctuating asymmetry and female choice behaviour in the damselflyPlatycypha caligata

The territorial damselflyPlatycypha caligata(Odontata: Chlorocyphidae) has a courtship behaviour where males wave the white anterior surface of all six laterally enlarged tibiae at females. I experimentally altered this white tibial surface using black paint to determine the effect on male behaviour of a 25% reduction in area, or an increase in asymmetry between the left and right side of the body. I collected behavioural data on courtship, mating and fighting for males already holding territories. Neither a reduction in the area nor an increase in asymmetry of tibial whiteness affected male mating rate, courtship rate or fighting behaviour. These manipulations also had no significant effect on the daily presence at the study site. Males whose tibial whiteness was experimentally removed also showed no decrease in mating rate or change in fighting behaviour while territorial. The complete removal of tibial whiteness did, however, lead to a significant reduction in daily presence, possibly due to a reduced ability to acquire or hold a territory. There was no relationship between natural levels of asymmetry in tibial whiteness and mating rate, courting rate or fighting behaviour for males with territories. However, the natural area of tibial whiteness was significantly positively related to both mean male mating rate and copulation duration for territorial males. This result suggests that a phenotypic correlate of area of tibial whiteness, probably body size, is sexually selected through female choice among males that already hold territories.

Genetic difference in female choice between two guppy populations

The pattern of mating preferences of female guppies, Poecilia reticulata, differs genetically between two Trinidadian populations. Males from the Aripo and Paria rivers of Trinidad differ in the extent and intensity of orange pigment in their colour patterns. The relative area of orange in Paria colour patterns was nearly twice that in Aripo colour patterns. To test the hypothesis that a difference in female mating preferences could have contributed to the difference in colour patterns, patterns of female choice between laboratory-reared Paria and Aripo females were compared. The frequency of sexual responses to male courtship displays was used to measure the average preference of females for individual males. Paria females discriminated significantly between Paria males based upon differences in the extent of orange in the colour pattern. Aripo females showed no evidence of discrimination between Paria males, and thus differed significantly from Paria females in choice behaviour. Neither group of females discriminated between Aripo males. These results are evidence that female choice behaviour can vary genetically within a species and suggest that differences in preferences may have contributed to divergence in colour patterns among guppy populations.

Motivational Bases of Sex Differences in Choice Behavior

Previous studies comparing male and female choice behavior in a prisoner's dilemma game (PDG) have often confounded contingency of strategy with level of cooperation. Also the motivational basis of the choices was often unclear. A standard PDG and a six-alternative matrix, which separated the various motivations for making the noncooperative alternative, were employed. The subjects, 64 males and 64 females, played under one of four simulated strategies created by crossing two levels of cooperation with two levels of contingency. There were no sex differences under the PDG but there were under the six-alternative matrix. Females, in comparison to males, chose the maximum absolute gain alternative more and the minimize risk alternative less. The results were used to clarify the research on the generalizability of game-playing behavior to other settings.

Mother-infant and adult female choice behavior in rhesus monkeys after various rearing experiences.

Mother-infant and adult female choice behavior in rhesus monkeys after various rearing experiences.