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Male foraging efficiency, but not male problem-solving performance, influences female mating preferences in zebra finches

Experimental evidence suggests that females would prefer males with better cognitive abilities as mates. However, little is known about the traits reflecting enhanced cognitive skills on which females might base their mate-choice decisions. In particular, it has been suggested that male foraging per...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Chantal, Véronique, Gibelli, Julie, Dubois, Frédérique
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5012330/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27635358
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2409
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author Chantal, Véronique
Gibelli, Julie
Dubois, Frédérique
author_facet Chantal, Véronique
Gibelli, Julie
Dubois, Frédérique
author_sort Chantal, Véronique
collection PubMed
description Experimental evidence suggests that females would prefer males with better cognitive abilities as mates. However, little is known about the traits reflecting enhanced cognitive skills on which females might base their mate-choice decisions. In particular, it has been suggested that male foraging performance could be used as an indicator of cognitive capacity, but convincing evidence for this hypothesis is still lacking. In the present study, we investigated whether female zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) modify their mating preferences after having observed the performance of males on a problem-solving task. Specifically, we measured the females’ preferences between two males once before and once after an observation period, during which their initially preferred male was incapable of solving the task contrary to their initially less-preferred male. We also conducted a control treatment to test whether the shift in female preferences was attributable to differences between the two stimulus males in their foraging efficiency. Finally, we assessed each bird’s performance in a color associative task to check whether females can discriminate among males based on their learning speed. We found that females significantly increased their preference toward the most efficient male in both treatments. Yet, there was no difference between the two treatments and we found no evidence that females assess male cognitive ability indirectly via morphological traits. Thus, our results suggest that females would not use the males’ problem-solving performance as an indicator of general cognitive ability to gain indirect fitness benefits (i.e., good genes) but rather to assess their foraging efficiency and gain direct benefits.
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spelling pubmed-50123302016-09-15 Male foraging efficiency, but not male problem-solving performance, influences female mating preferences in zebra finches Chantal, Véronique Gibelli, Julie Dubois, Frédérique PeerJ Animal Behavior Experimental evidence suggests that females would prefer males with better cognitive abilities as mates. However, little is known about the traits reflecting enhanced cognitive skills on which females might base their mate-choice decisions. In particular, it has been suggested that male foraging performance could be used as an indicator of cognitive capacity, but convincing evidence for this hypothesis is still lacking. In the present study, we investigated whether female zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) modify their mating preferences after having observed the performance of males on a problem-solving task. Specifically, we measured the females’ preferences between two males once before and once after an observation period, during which their initially preferred male was incapable of solving the task contrary to their initially less-preferred male. We also conducted a control treatment to test whether the shift in female preferences was attributable to differences between the two stimulus males in their foraging efficiency. Finally, we assessed each bird’s performance in a color associative task to check whether females can discriminate among males based on their learning speed. We found that females significantly increased their preference toward the most efficient male in both treatments. Yet, there was no difference between the two treatments and we found no evidence that females assess male cognitive ability indirectly via morphological traits. Thus, our results suggest that females would not use the males’ problem-solving performance as an indicator of general cognitive ability to gain indirect fitness benefits (i.e., good genes) but rather to assess their foraging efficiency and gain direct benefits. PeerJ Inc. 2016-08-31 /pmc/articles/PMC5012330/ /pubmed/27635358 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2409 Text en © 2016 Chantal 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 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Animal Behavior
Chantal, Véronique
Gibelli, Julie
Dubois, Frédérique
Male foraging efficiency, but not male problem-solving performance, influences female mating preferences in zebra finches
title Male foraging efficiency, but not male problem-solving performance, influences female mating preferences in zebra finches
title_full Male foraging efficiency, but not male problem-solving performance, influences female mating preferences in zebra finches
title_fullStr Male foraging efficiency, but not male problem-solving performance, influences female mating preferences in zebra finches
title_full_unstemmed Male foraging efficiency, but not male problem-solving performance, influences female mating preferences in zebra finches
title_short Male foraging efficiency, but not male problem-solving performance, influences female mating preferences in zebra finches
title_sort male foraging efficiency, but not male problem-solving performance, influences female mating preferences in zebra finches
topic Animal Behavior
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5012330/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27635358
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2409
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