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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...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2012
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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. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3308953 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2012 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
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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