Selective attention in peacocks during assessment of rival males

Abstract

Males in many species compete intensely for access to females. In order to minimize costly interactions, they can assess their rivals' competitive abilities by evaluating traits and behaviors. We know little about how males selectively direct their attention to make these assessments. Using Indian peafowl (Pavo cristatus) as a model system, we examined how males visually assess their competitors by continuously tracking the gaze of freely moving peacocks during the mating season. When assessing rivals, peacocks selectively gazed toward the lower display regions of their rivals, including the lower eyespot and fishtail feathers, dense feathers, body and wings. Their attention was modified based on the rivals' behavior such that they spent more time looking at rivals when rivals were shaking their wings and moving. The results indicate that peacocks selectively allocate their attention during rival assessment. The gaze patterns of males assessing rivals were largely similar to those of females evaluating mates, suggesting that some male traits serve a dual function in both intra-and intersexual selection. However, males spent more time than females looking at the upper eyespots and this could indicate that the upper eyespots function more in close-up rival assessment than mate choice.

A long tail of truth and beauty: A zigzag pattern of feather formation explains the symmetry, complexity, and beauty of the peacock’s tail

“…Males display their trains to rivals; they do not rattle their trains, but train displays have been shown to form part of male-male aggressive behaviours, thus informing males’ assessments of rivals [29]. In this respect, size would count, and larger would be better.…”

“…Interestingly enough, Yorzinski et al[29]demonstrated that peacocks assess rivals using cues similar to the cues that females use to assess males. One study found that females spent more time gazing at the lower train, which is lined with eyespots and fishtails, and the body during courtship displays[21];meanwhile, another study found that males spent more time gazing at the lower train eyespots and fishtail feathers and the body and wings of rival males[29]. This strongly suggests that the traits used in courtship displays are also used to assess rivals [30].…”

“…When females are nearby, males engage in their courtship displays, using train rattling and wing shaking, orienting their trains at certain angles to the sun, and engaging in run-and-hoot behaviour [4,9,17,20]. Interestingly enough, Yorzinski et al[29]demonstrated that peacocks assess rivals using cues similar to the cues that females use to assess males. One study found that females spent more time gazing at the lower train, which is lined with eyespots and fishtails, and the body during courtship displays[21];meanwhile, another study found that males spent more time gazing at the lower train eyespots and fishtail feathers and the body and wings of rival males[29].…”

Multimodal and multifunctional signaling? – Web reduction courtship behavior in a North American population of the false black widow spider

“…Concurrently, one or both sexes may also produce intra-sexual signals that deter potential rivals [11,12]. Inter-and intra-sexual signals can be identical [11,13] or different [14][15][16]. For example, the boatwhistle vocalizations of male Lusitanian toadfish, Halobatrachus didactylus, have dual functions, serving a role during male-female courtship and as a male-male territorial signal [11].…”

Environmental acoustic cues guide the biosonar attention of a highly specialised echolocator

“…Such sensory integration and attentional switches across different sensory modalities have been studied in depth (Yorzinski et al, 2017). In contrast, less is known about how animals coordinate multiple streams of information within a single modality.…”