The social context of a territorial dispute differentially influences the way individuals in breeding pairs coordinate their aggressive tactics

Schuppe, Eric R.; Sanin, Gloria D; Fuxjager, Matthew J.

doi:10.1007/s00265-016-2088-0

Cited by 29 publications

(50 citation statements)

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“…Each experiment shares a common simulated territorial intrusion (STI) paradigm, in which territorial individuals are presented with an engineered drum stimulus. Downy woodpeckers’ drums incorporate an average of 15 separate beats (1 SEM ± 0.26) (Schuppe et al., ). As an individual drums, it steadily slows the beat rate in a linear fashion—in fact, this relationship is evident by plotting the duration between two consecutive drumbeats as a function of inter‐beat interval (Figure a).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We broadcasted the stimuli for 10 min, which consisted of multiple drums spaced 8 s apart. This corresponds to the average time between drums produced by displaying individuals in the local population (Schuppe et al., ). We kept the volume of each stimulus constant between trials at 80 dB, measured 1 m from the speaker.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For Experiments I and II , observers recorded aggressive behaviour produced by both the male and female residents. In downy woodpeckers, both sexes respond aggressively to threatening intruders by producing acoustic responses (drums and whinny calls), while actively searching for the “intruder” (Dodenhoff, ; Schuppe et al., ). In this regard, quantifying these responses during a territorial intrusion provides a reflection of the degree to which residents perceive an intruder as a viable social threat (Searcy & Beecher, ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this regard, quantifying these responses during a territorial intrusion provides a reflection of the degree to which residents perceive an intruder as a viable social threat (Searcy & Beecher, ). During playback, an observer blind to treatment groups evaluated resident aggression by dictating the following behavioural observations: (1) drums; (2) whinny calls (a vocalization used almost exclusively during agonistic interactions), (3) latency to respond to the stimulus (the time from the STI's onset until the resident either first performed a drum or whinny call, or approached within 5 m of the speaker); and (4) total time spent within a radius of 5 m from the speaker (Dodenhoff, ; Jackson & Ouellet, ; Schuppe et al., ). We also simultaneously recorded resident birds’ drums through a directional microphone (Sennheiser ME66; sampling frequency = 44.1 kHz) connected to the same recorder.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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High‐speed displays encoding motor skill trigger elevated territorial aggression in downy woodpeckers

Schuppe

Fuxjager

2017

Functional Ecology

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Abstract1. Many species perform social displays that incorporate complex body movements.However, the reason why such exaggerated behavioural signals evolve in the first place is unclear.2. Recent work posits that physical displays arise in part because they showcase an animal's motor skill-that is, the ability to produce challenging motor acts with great coordination, precision and/or speed. Support for this idea is largely correlational, with few studies attempting to manipulate metrics of motor skill to assess their effect on physical display efficacy. Here, we address this issue in the downy woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens).Individuals of this species compete for territories through the performance of drums, which are complex displays produced by rapidly hammering the bill against a resonate surface at rates of 16 hits/s. This display is a whole-body endeavour, and its production relies on the ability to swiftly oscillate the head forward and backward at fraction-of-a-second periods.4. Using a series of playback studies, we expose resident birds to experimentally engineered drums that reflect putative fine-scale differences in the motor command of the head and neck. We show that resident individuals respond more aggressively to drums characterized by a cadence with a 9-ms faster beat speed. These residents even modulate their own drum speed to resemble this high-performance stimulus, although they often fail to reach it. Residents also appear to appraise drum acceleration by listening to the time intervals between successive beats in a single drum, while tracking how these time intervals change as the signal progresses. 5. Our data support a connection between motor skill and the effectiveness of a physical display produced through elaborate body movement. We, therefore, suspect that motor skill is adaptive and evolves in response to selection by competition for effective drum displays. K E Y W O R D Sdowny woodpecker, evolution, gestural signal, motor skill, territorial behaviourThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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High‐speed displays encoding motor skill trigger elevated territorial aggression in downy woodpeckers

Schuppe

Fuxjager

2017

Functional Ecology

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“…, Schuppe et al . ). Home‐range overlap suggests that resources or space are partitioned to some degree, which can increase the frequency of competitive interactions (Ims , Stamps ).…”

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confidence: 97%

Evaluating interactions between space‐use sharing and defence under increasing density conditions for the group‐territorial Red‐cockaded Woodpecker Leuconotopicus borealis

Garabedian

Moorman

Peterson

et al. 2018

Ibis

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Information about how bird species respond to increasing density conditions through either space‐use sharing or increased territoriality, and how those changes affect fitness, is essential for effective conservation planning. We used a case study of endangered Red‐cockaded Woodpeckers Leuconotopicus borealis (RCW) to address these questions. We documented over 36 000 locations from 44 RCW groups in three density conditions on two sites in South Carolina, USA, between April 2013 and March 2015. The frequency of neighbouring group interactions differed among density conditions and was highest for high‐density groups. RCW home‐ranges and core‐areas were larger under low‐density conditions (x¯normalHome‐normalrange = 88.4 ha, x¯normalCore‐normalarea = 21.0 ha) than under medium (x¯normalHome‐normalrange = 68.29 ha, x¯normalCore‐normalarea = 16.6 ha) and high‐density (x¯normalHome‐normalrange = 76.3 ha, x¯normalCore‐normalarea = 18.6 ha) conditions. Neighbouring RCWs maintained overlapping home‐ranges with nearly exclusive core‐areas across density conditions, but overlap tended to increase as neighbouring group density increased. Under high‐density conditions, home‐range overlap correlated inversely with clutch size (β ± se = −0.19 ± 0.09), nestling production (β ± se = −0.37 ± 0.09) and fledgling production (β ± se = −0.34 ± 0.08). Our results indicate that RCWs dedicate more effort to territorial defence under high‐density conditions, potentially at the expense of greater foraging efficiency and time allocated to reproduction, as evidenced by reduced fitness. Large home‐range overlap indicated limited territoriality farther away from cavity trees, but the existence of exclusive core‐areas suggests that RCW groups defend habitat closer to cavity trees. Thiessen partitions used to allocate critical foraging habitat offered comprehensive habitat protection for RCW but appear flawed for spatially explicit habitat assessments because they do not accurately delineate space used by individual RCW groups.

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Sound and Vocal Production and Function

Ritchison

2023

Fascinating Life Sciences

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The social context of a territorial dispute differentially influences the way individuals in breeding pairs coordinate their aggressive tactics

Cited by 29 publications

References 49 publications

High‐speed displays encoding motor skill trigger elevated territorial aggression in downy woodpeckers

High‐speed displays encoding motor skill trigger elevated territorial aggression in downy woodpeckers

Evaluating interactions between space‐use sharing and defence under increasing density conditions for the group‐territorial Red‐cockaded Woodpecker Leuconotopicus borealis

Sound and Vocal Production and Function

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