Song duets function primarily as cooperative displays in pairs of happy wrens

Templeton, Christopher N.; Rivera‐Cáceres, Karla D.; Mann, Nigel I.; Slater, Peter J.

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2011.09.024

Cited by 28 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…The asymmetry of response evident in these studies has been argued to provide support for the Mate Guarding hypothesis for duet function (Douglas & Mennill ; although it has also been argued to be a sex‐specific division of labour during territory defence: Templeton et al. ). The current study of barred antshrikes is the first stereo‐speaker investigation to show a lack of differentiation between the same‐sex and opposite‐sex rivals.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 56%

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The Responses of Duetting Antbirds to Stereo Duet Playback Provide Support for the Joint Territory Defence Hypothesis

Koloff

Mennill

2013

Ethology

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In multiple animal taxa, including many birds and primates, members of mated pairs produce coordinated acoustic displays known as duets. By observing the behaviour of territorial animals as they respond to playback‐simulated duets of rivals, we can gain insight into the behavioural significance of vocal duets. Playback experiments, however, have been conducted across a very narrow range of duetting animals. Furthermore, many studies have been conducted with single‐speaker playback, whereas stereo‐speaker playback offers more spatially realistic simulation of duets. Moreover, by evaluating the reactions of animals to separate loudspeakers broadcasting male and female duet contributions, we can study the interactions of both males and females with same‐sex vs. opposite‐sex rivals. We used a paired experimental design to broadcast duet stimuli through a single‐speaker and a stereo‐speaker apparatus to 30 pairs of duetting barred antshrikes Thamnophilus doliatus in Costa Rica. Our goals were (1) to evaluate whether territorial antbirds respond more aggressively to male vs. female duet components and (2) to assess aggressive responses of antbirds towards single‐speaker vs. stereo‐speaker playback. Neither males nor females differentiated between the loudspeaker simulating the male vs. female duet contribution during stereo‐speaker playback trials. Barred antshrikes displayed significantly stronger responses to stereo‐speaker playback compared with single‐speaker playback. Males displayed stronger playback responses than females with closer, quicker and more vocal responses. These results provide evidence for a joint resource defence function of antbird duets given that pairs responded together with equivalent intensity to male and female simulated intruders. This is the first study to show that although duetting is an aggressive territorial signal, birds do not necessarily respond to sex‐specific components of duets. Our results support the idea that spatially realistic stereo presentation of duet stimuli is critical for experimental duet research.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 56%

“…Stereo duet playback to rufous‐and‐white wrens Thryophilus rufalbus (Mennill ; Mennill & Vehrencamp ), happy wrens Pheugopedius felix (Templeton et al. ), eastern whipbirds Psophodes olivaceous (Rogers et al. , ) and Steere's liocichlas Liocichla steerii (Weng et al.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Responses of Duetting Antbirds to Stereo Duet Playback Provide Support for the Joint Territory Defence Hypothesis

Koloff

Mennill

2013

Ethology

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“…The centre observer recorded all vocalizations and dictated behavioural observations from all three observers (via walkie-talkies) to a digital recorder. In addition to recording female vocalizations, we quantified her distance from both speakers during the 8 min trial and for 20 min subsequently, as a measure of her territorial response [12].…”

Section: (C) Playback Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These are sung as solos and combined into duets, which can be initiated by males or females. Song sharing occurs in the population, but each pair maintains a unique duet code [11][12][13]. We asked whether female happy wrens would preferentially match the songs of an intruding female or sing the appropriate reply to playback of their mate's songs, in order to better understand the nature and function of vocal duetting.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Female happy wrens select songs to cooperate with their mates rather than confront intruders

et al. 2013

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Vocal duetting occurs in many taxa, but its function remains much-debated. Like species in which only one sex sings, duetting birds can use their song repertoires to signal aggression by singing song types that match those of territorial intruders. However, when pairs do not share specific combinations of songs (duet codes), individuals must choose to signal aggression by matching the same-sex rival, or commitment by replying appropriately to their mate. Here, we examined the song types used by female happy wrens (Pheugopedius felix) forced to make this decision in a playback experiment. We temporarily removed the male from the territory and then played songs from two loudspeakers to simulate an intruding female and the removed mate's response, using song types that the pair possessed but did not naturally combine into duets. Females were aggressive towards the female playback speaker, approaching it and overlapping the female playback songs, but nevertheless replied appropriately to their mate's songs instead of type matching the intruding female. This study indicates that females use song overlapping to signal aggression but use their vocal repertoires to create pair-specific duet codes with their mates, suggesting that duetting functions primarily to demonstrate pair commitment.

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The origins of musicality in the motion of primates

Schruth,

Templeton,

Holman

et al. 2024

American Journal of Biological Anthropology

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Animals communicate acoustically to report location, identity, and emotive state to conspecifics. Acoustic signals can also function as displays to potential mates and as territorial advertisement. Music and song are terms often reserved only for humans and birds, but elements of both forms of acoustic display are also found in non‐human primates. While culture, bonding, and side‐effects all factor into the emergence of musicality, biophysical insights into what might be signaled by specific acoustic features are less well understood.ObjectivesHere we probe the origins of musicality by evaluating the links between musical features (structural complexity, rhythm, interval, and tone) and a variety of potential ecological drivers of its evolution across primate species. Alongside other hypothesized causes (e.g. territoriality, sexual selection), we evaluated the hypothesis that perilous arboreal locomotion might favor musical calling in primates as a signal of capacities underlying spatio‐temporal precision in motor tasks.Materials and MethodsWe used musical features found in spectrographs of vocalizations of 58 primate species and corresponding measures of locomotion, diet, ranging, and mating. Leveraging phylogenetic information helped us impute missing data and control for relatedness of species while selecting among candidate multivariate regression models.ResultsResults indicated that rapid inter‐substrate arboreal locomotion is highly correlated with several metrics of music‐like signaling. Diet, alongside mate‐choice and range size, emerged as factors that also correlated with complex calling patterns.DiscussionThese results support the hypothesis that musical calling may function as a signal, to neighbors or potential mates, of accuracy in landing on relatively narrow targets.

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Song duets function primarily as cooperative displays in pairs of happy wrens

Cited by 28 publications

References 33 publications

The Responses of Duetting Antbirds to Stereo Duet Playback Provide Support for the Joint Territory Defence Hypothesis

The Responses of Duetting Antbirds to Stereo Duet Playback Provide Support for the Joint Territory Defence Hypothesis

Female happy wrens select songs to cooperate with their mates rather than confront intruders

The origins of musicality in the motion of primates

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