.jpg "zebra male and female")
Males also learn their song from conspecifics and only at an early age, but they do this in an individual-specific manner. Zebra finches belong to a third singing type. Wolfgang ForstmeierĮach male zebra finch develops his own song Credit: MPI for Biological Intelligence, i.f. The researchers found that females select their partner mainly according to dialect.
#ZEBRA MALE AND FEMALE CODE#
Within a region, all males sing their song in the same way, but between regions, songs differ and obvious borders can be identified where two dialects meet.Ī small backpack including a QR code was used to track all individuals and create social interaction maps. However, such species with "uniformist" song often show variation at a larger geographic scale. They copy the sounds of their conspecifics as closely as possible, and thereby make it easy for anyone to recognize the species. In other species, such as the yellowhammer, males are a lot more stereotypic and uniform. In some of the more than 5,000 songbird species, the males are real "virtuosos." Throughout their life, they acquire new sounds and thus can vary their songs accordingly, possibly because this impresses the females the most. Which species is it, and which individual? In either case it should be clear from the signal who the sender of the message is. A male's song may serve to repel a male neighbor, or to attract a female. However, if we want to understand why birds sing, we have to consider that song may have multiple functions. Thus, female zebra finches pay more attention to a cultural trait than to male appearance. They also discovered that these "cryptic dialects" are decisive for the females' choice of mate.
However, with the help of an artificial intelligence technique, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology (Biological Intelligence, in foundation), have now been able to show that the songs of four different zebra finch populations differ systematically. Because of this individual-specific song, it was long assumed that dialects do not exist in zebra finches. To stand out in the crowd, each male develops its own unique song. Male zebra finches learn their song by imitating conspecifics. Note that the birds from the domestic population are notably larger. The photo shows two zebra finch pairs: one pair from a wild-derived populations (the birds in the middle, female on the left, male on the right), and one pair from a domesticated population (male on the left and female on the right). Using an artificial intelligence technique, researchers discovered dialects in the songs of different zebra finch populations.
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