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Communication in the Third Dimension: Song Perch Height of Rivals Affects Singing Response in Nightingales

Many animals use long-range signals to compete over mates and resources. Optimal transmission can be achieved by choosing efficient signals, or by choosing adequate signalling perches and song posts. High signalling perches benefit sound transmission and reception, but may be more risky due to expos...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Sprau, Philipp, Roth, Tobias, Naguib, Marc, Amrhein, Valentin
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3308953/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22448215
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0032194
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author Sprau, Philipp
Roth, Tobias
Naguib, Marc
Amrhein, Valentin
author_facet Sprau, Philipp
Roth, Tobias
Naguib, Marc
Amrhein, Valentin
author_sort Sprau, Philipp
collection PubMed
description Many animals use long-range signals to compete over mates and resources. Optimal transmission can be achieved by choosing efficient signals, or by choosing adequate signalling perches and song posts. High signalling perches benefit sound transmission and reception, but may be more risky due to exposure to airborne predators. Perch height could thus reflect male quality, with individuals signalling at higher perches appearing as more threatening to rivals. Using playbacks on nightingales (Luscinia megarhynchos), we simulated rivals singing at the same height as residents, or singing three metres higher. Surprisingly, residents increased song output stronger, and, varying with future pairing success, overlapped more songs of the playback when rivals were singing at the same height than when they were singing higher. Other than expected, rivals singing at the same height may thus be experienced as more threatening than rivals singing at higher perches. Our study provides new evidence that territorial animals integrate information on signalling height and thus on vertical cues in their assessment of rivals.
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spelling pubmed-33089532012-03-23 Communication in the Third Dimension: Song Perch Height of Rivals Affects Singing Response in Nightingales Sprau, Philipp Roth, Tobias Naguib, Marc Amrhein, Valentin PLoS One Research Article Many animals use long-range signals to compete over mates and resources. Optimal transmission can be achieved by choosing efficient signals, or by choosing adequate signalling perches and song posts. High signalling perches benefit sound transmission and reception, but may be more risky due to exposure to airborne predators. Perch height could thus reflect male quality, with individuals signalling at higher perches appearing as more threatening to rivals. Using playbacks on nightingales (Luscinia megarhynchos), we simulated rivals singing at the same height as residents, or singing three metres higher. Surprisingly, residents increased song output stronger, and, varying with future pairing success, overlapped more songs of the playback when rivals were singing at the same height than when they were singing higher. Other than expected, rivals singing at the same height may thus be experienced as more threatening than rivals singing at higher perches. Our study provides new evidence that territorial animals integrate information on signalling height and thus on vertical cues in their assessment of rivals. Public Library of Science 2012-03-20 /pmc/articles/PMC3308953/ /pubmed/22448215 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0032194 Text en Sprau et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Sprau, Philipp
Roth, Tobias
Naguib, Marc
Amrhein, Valentin
Communication in the Third Dimension: Song Perch Height of Rivals Affects Singing Response in Nightingales
title Communication in the Third Dimension: Song Perch Height of Rivals Affects Singing Response in Nightingales
title_full Communication in the Third Dimension: Song Perch Height of Rivals Affects Singing Response in Nightingales
title_fullStr Communication in the Third Dimension: Song Perch Height of Rivals Affects Singing Response in Nightingales
title_full_unstemmed Communication in the Third Dimension: Song Perch Height of Rivals Affects Singing Response in Nightingales
title_short Communication in the Third Dimension: Song Perch Height of Rivals Affects Singing Response in Nightingales
title_sort communication in the third dimension: song perch height of rivals affects singing response in nightingales
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3308953/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22448215
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0032194
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