TY - JOUR
T1 - Asymmetric behavioural responses to divergent vocal signals in allopatric Neotropical sparrows
AU - Fernández-Gómez, Ronald A.
AU - Morales-Mávil, Jorge E.
AU - Hernández-Salazar, Laura T.
AU - Sosa-López, J. Roberto
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour
PY - 2021/4
Y1 - 2021/4
N2 - Birdsongs are signals that encode information for multiple behaviours such as species recognition. Species recognition is influenced by both geographical variation in song and birds' discrimination abilities, forming the basis for evolutionary processes driving reproductive isolation and speciation. Here, we assessed the behavioural responses to geographical variation in songs in olive sparrows, Arremonops rufivirgatus. We conducted a series of playback experiments in two allopatric populations (Pacific, Peninsula) to assess whether olive sparrows responded differentially to geographical variants of their song and whether such responses could be predicted by the acoustic similarity between subject and stimulus songs. Our results indicate an asymmetrical behavioural response, with the Pacific population responding strongly to both local and allopatric stimuli and weakly to the control, and the Peninsula population responding strongly to local stimuli and weakly to both allopatric stimuli and the control. Furthermore, despite the birds' lack of previous experience with the playback stimulus songs, we found that response intensity was predicted by the acoustic similarity in both populations, with stronger responses to more similar songs, suggesting that males from different population may use a similar mechanism to recognize signals, despite whether the signal comes from conspecifics or heterospecifics. Our findings support the hypothesis that song divergence could act as a premating barrier for at least one of the studies populations, and that birds' responses are dictated by the structural similarity between senders' and receivers’ signals.
AB - Birdsongs are signals that encode information for multiple behaviours such as species recognition. Species recognition is influenced by both geographical variation in song and birds' discrimination abilities, forming the basis for evolutionary processes driving reproductive isolation and speciation. Here, we assessed the behavioural responses to geographical variation in songs in olive sparrows, Arremonops rufivirgatus. We conducted a series of playback experiments in two allopatric populations (Pacific, Peninsula) to assess whether olive sparrows responded differentially to geographical variants of their song and whether such responses could be predicted by the acoustic similarity between subject and stimulus songs. Our results indicate an asymmetrical behavioural response, with the Pacific population responding strongly to both local and allopatric stimuli and weakly to the control, and the Peninsula population responding strongly to local stimuli and weakly to both allopatric stimuli and the control. Furthermore, despite the birds' lack of previous experience with the playback stimulus songs, we found that response intensity was predicted by the acoustic similarity in both populations, with stronger responses to more similar songs, suggesting that males from different population may use a similar mechanism to recognize signals, despite whether the signal comes from conspecifics or heterospecifics. Our findings support the hypothesis that song divergence could act as a premating barrier for at least one of the studies populations, and that birds' responses are dictated by the structural similarity between senders' and receivers’ signals.
KW - birdsong
KW - discrimination
KW - isolated population
KW - playback experiment
KW - signal evolution
KW - speciation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85101277243&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.anbehav.2021.01.018
DO - 10.1016/j.anbehav.2021.01.018
M3 - Artículo
AN - SCOPUS:85101277243
SN - 0003-3472
VL - 174
SP - 41
EP - 50
JO - Animal Behaviour
JF - Animal Behaviour
ER -