Divergence in mating signals correlates with genetic distance and behavioural responses to playback

Animals use acoustic signals to defend resources against rivals and attract breeding partners. As with many biological traits, acoustic signals may reflect ancestry; closely related species often produce more similar signals than do distantly related species. Whether this similarity in acoustic signals is biologically relevant to animals is poorly understood. We conducted a playback experiment to measure the physical and vocal responses of male songbirds to the songs of both conspecific and allopatric-congeneric animals that varied in their acoustic and genetic similarity. Our subjects were territorial males of four species of neotropical Troglodytes wrens: Brown-throated Wrens (Troglodytes brunneicollis), Cozumel Wrens (T. beani), Clarion Wrens (T. tanneri), and Socorro Wrens (T. sissonii). Our results indicate that birds respond to playback of both conspecific and allopatric-congeneric animals; that acoustic differences increase with genetic distance; and that genetic divergence predi...

动物依靠声学信号抵御竞争者、保卫资源，并吸引繁殖配偶。与诸多生物性状一致，声学信号可反映物种的演化亲缘关系：亲缘关系较近的物种所发出的信号，通常比远缘物种更为相似。目前学界对这类声学信号相似性是否与动物的生物学功能存在关联仍知之甚少。本研究开展回放实验，以测量雄性鸣禽对同种以及异域同属物种鸣唱的行为与发声响应——这些对照物种的声学与遗传相似性各不相同。本研究的实验对象为4种新热带区鹪鹩属（Troglodytes）的领域性雄性个体：棕喉鹪鹩（Troglodytes brunneicollis）、科苏梅尔鹪鹩（T. beani）、克拉里昂鹪鹩（T. tanneri）以及索科罗鹪鹩（T. sissonii）。本研究结果显示：鸣禽会对同种及异域同属物种的回放鸣唱产生响应；声学差异随遗传距离增大而增加；且遗传分化可预测...