Dissertation Research: Sexually Selected Mediation of Mating Tactic Choice in the Green Treefrog (Hyla cinerea)

雄性动物可能会使用几种不同的行为来获得配偶。在绿色树蛙的情况下，一些雄性仍然默默地站在呼唤的雄蛙旁边，试图拦截被呼叫者吸引的雌性(卫星交配策略)。通过使用多个青蛙叫声的扬声器回放来模拟和控制一个复杂的社会环境，将对雄性与其他个体竞争交配的能力如何影响其使用不同的交配行为进行调查。还将确定采取卫星交配行为的雄性是否通过成为有吸引力的雄性的卫星来利用雌性对配偶的呼唤偏好，从而使这种行为的好处最大化。个体之间的行为差异可能有纯粹的遗传基础；然而，许多物种的个体在行为选择上是灵活的，并采取最适合他们当前需要的策略。科学家们对个体行为差异存在的原因以及动物的社会环境如何调节这种行为差异的理解相对较差。这项研究将有助于我们理解雄性竞争和雌性配偶选择如何在行为上塑造复杂的交配系统。

Male animals may use several different behaviors to obtain mates. In the case of the green treefrog, some males remain silently positioned next to a calling male and attempt to intercept females attracted to that caller (satellite mating tactic). Using multiple speaker playbacks of frog calls to simulate and control a socially complex environment, investigations of how a male's ability to compete with other individuals for access to mates influences his use of different mating behaviorswill be conducted. It will also be determined whether males adopting the satellite mating behavior take advantage of female call preferences for mates by becoming satellites of attractive males, thereby maximizing the benefits of the behavior. Behavioral differences among individuals may have a purely genetic basis; however, individuals in many species are flexible in their behavioral choices and adopt the tactic that best fits their currentneeds. Scientists have a relatively poor understanding why individual behavioral variation exists and how the animal's social environment may mediate this behavioral variation. This study will contribute to our understanding of how male-male competition and female mate choice shapea behaviorally complex mating system.