DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Connecting Cognition, Signaling, and Female Choice in Wild Birds

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

It has long been proposed that female animals use various external information containing signals to assess male quality when choosing mates. However, the connection between a male's level of intelligence and external traits that females can assess has been difficult to measure. Here the researchers will assess spatial memory ability, an intelligence trait thought to increase survival in wild food-storing birds, and two overt male signals, feather coloration and song production, to address the question of whether or not female mating choice is associated with these traits. The researchers will conduct the experiments with free-living birds using arrays of programmable 'smart' bird feeders that can track which individuals are using these feeders to test spatial learning ability. The researchers will then test whether individual variation in learning is associated with variation in communication signals and with mate choice. Findings from this work can be applied to a wide variety of species, including humans, that must make important decisions when using information that isn't always easily assessed or tangible. All of the results and findings will be widely available to a variety of audiences through publication in peer-reviewed journals and participation in professional conferences. Additionally, this work will support the research experience of undergraduate students and the equipment used in this project will also be used in public outreach activities in the community, including creating a museum display at the University of Nevada's Museum of Natural History that illustrates the differences in human and non-human.Signals are universally used across taxa to convey a diverse range of information, including social status, foraging locations, and predator presence. Several hypotheses have been proposed regarding how sexual signals of quality, in particular, have evolved to be honest as these signals are only useful insofar as they reflect some fitness associated trait(s) of the sender. Cognitive ability is one such fitness-related trait, yet direct evidence linking cognitive ability, signaling, and associated fitness consequences of female mating choices have historically been difficult to assess. Using wild birds fitted with passive integrated transponder leg bands and radio-frequency identification technology, the researchers will directly test whether (a) individual variation in a cognitive ability is associated with variation in two modes of signaling perceivable by females and (b) whether variation in cognitive ability and these two signals reflect female mating choices via production of extra-pair offspring. By doing so, the researchers will connect a cognitive trait thought to increase survival, with song production and plumage reflectance, to female mating choices in wild food-caching birds. These birds inhabit differentially harsh environments creating differential selection pressures on spatial memory ability used to retrieve cached food. Using this system the researchers will be able to directly test the assumption that signals reflect individual quality, an assumption that has been somewhat intangible in the past.