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

长期以来，人们一直建议雌性动物在选择配偶时使用包含信号的各种外部信息来评估雄性质量。然而，男性的智力水平与女性可以评估的外部特征之间的联系一直很难衡量。在这里，研究人员将评估空间记忆能力，这是一种被认为可以提高野生食物储存鸟类存活率的智力特征，以及两个公开的雄性信号，羽毛着色和歌声产生，以解决雌性交配选择是否与这些特征相关的问题。研究人员将用自由生活的鸟类进行实验，使用可编程的“智能”鸟类喂食器阵列，这些喂食器可以跟踪哪些人正在使用这些喂食器来测试空间学习能力。然后，研究人员将测试学习中的个体差异是否与交流信号的差异和配偶选择有关。这项工作的发现可以应用于包括人类在内的各种物种，这些物种在使用不总是容易评估或有形的信息时必须做出重要决定。所有结果和调查结果将通过在同行评议的期刊上发表和参加专业会议向各种受众广泛提供。此外，这项工作将支持本科生的研究经验，该项目中使用的设备也将用于社区的公共推广活动，包括在内华达大学自然历史博物馆创建一个博物馆展示，展示人类和非人类的差异。信号在整个分类群中普遍使用，以传达各种信息，包括社会地位、觅食地点和捕食者的存在。关于质量的性信号是如何进化成诚实的，已经提出了几个假设，因为这些信号只有在它们反映发送者的某些与健康相关的特征(S)的情况下才有用。认知能力是这种与健康相关的特征之一，然而，从历史上看，将认知能力、信号传递以及与女性交配选择相关的健康后果联系起来的直接证据一直很难评估。研究人员将使用配备了被动集成应答器腿带和射频识别技术的野生鸟类，直接测试(A)认知能力的个体差异是否与雌性可感知的两种信号模式的差异有关，以及(B)认知能力和这两种信号的差异是否反映出雌性通过产生额外的配对后代而做出的交配选择。通过这样做，研究人员将把一种被认为可以提高存活率的认知特征与野生食物缓存鸟类的雌性交配选择联系起来，这种认知特征具有歌声和羽毛反射率。这些鸟类生活在不同的恶劣环境中，对用于检索缓存食物的空间记忆能力造成了不同的选择压力。使用这个系统，研究人员将能够直接测试信号反映个体质量的假设，这一假设在过去一直是无形的。

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.