Vocalizations and Fitness in Female White-Crowned Sparrows

雌性白冠麻雀的发声和健康

• 批准号: 9306467
• 负责人: Luis Baptista
• 金额: $ 5.5万
• 依托单位: California Academy of Sciences
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1993
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1993-08-01 至 1995-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9306467&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Vocalizations; Fitness; Female; White; Crowned

9306467 Baptista Young white-crowned sparrows learn songs from adults, and vocal tradition coupled with isolation of local populations gives rise to regional song dialects. A number of parallels between speech development in humans and song development in birds have been noted. These include early language acquisition, bilingualism or singing two song types at dialect boundaries, lateralization of the brain, location of speech/song storage centers, and vertical tradition along sexual lines (i.e., sons learn from fathers and daughters from mothers). Although song and singing behavior of male white-crowned sparrows have been subjects of intense study over the last three decades, little attention has been paid to song of females. Dr. Baptista and his colleagues recently documented regular singing by female white- crowned sparrows. The present research is designed to test the function(s) of female singing in territoriality and/or mate advertisement as well as the role of song quality in acquiring a high-quality mate early in the breeding season to ensure successful breeding. One prediction to be tested is that females with good-quality songs will produce more young than females with poor-quality songs (as measured by a new technique called autocorrelation). Even though white-crowned sparrows (like many species of songbirds) have generally been thought to be monogamous, previous studies have indicated that over 30% of white-crowned sparrows in a population are products of matings outside the "monogamous" pair. The pursuit of such matings may be a female strategy that ensures maximum production of young, but it also leads to conflict between the sexes. Dr. Baptista predicts that high-quality females will try to mate with more than one male. This prediction will be tested by DNA fingerprinting, which will reveal identities of males fathering young in a nest. Recognition of the occurrence and role of female vocalizations has the potential to revolutionize our under standing of vocal behavior, its social and evolutionary importance, and its neural and hormonal mechanisms.

9306467 Baptista Young White-Crowned麻雀从成年人那里学习歌曲，而声乐传统以及当地人口的隔离会导致区域性歌曲方言。 已经注意到了人类的语音发展与鸟类的歌曲发展之间的许多相似之处。 其中包括早期的语言获取，双语主义或在方言边界上唱两首歌曲类型，大脑的横向化，语音/歌曲存储中心的位置以及沿性线的垂直传统（即，儿子从母亲那里向父亲和女儿学习）。 尽管在过去的三十年中，男性白麻雀的歌曲和唱歌行为一直是激烈研究的主题，但对女性歌曲的关注很少。 Baptista博士和他的同事们最近记录了女冠状麻雀的定期唱歌。 本研究旨在测试女性在领土和/或伴侣广告中唱歌的功能，以及歌曲质量在繁殖季节初获得高质量伴侣以确保成功繁殖的作用。 要测试的一个预测是，拥有优质歌曲的女性比女性的歌曲质量不佳的女性（通过一种称为自相关的新技术来衡量）。 尽管通常认为一夫一妻制的白冠麻雀（像许多鸣禽一样），但先前的研究表明，人口中有30％以上的白冠麻雀是“一夫一妻制”对以外的散布产物。 追求这种陈述可能是一项女性策略，可确保最大的年轻人产生，但也导致性别之间的冲突。 Baptista博士预测，高质量的女性将尝试与多个男性交配。 该预测将通过DNA指纹进行测试，DNA指纹识别将揭示在巢中父亲的男性的身份。 对女性发声的发生和作用的认识有可能彻底改变我们在声音行为的地位，社会和进化重要性以及其神经和荷尔蒙机制。