Data from: Acoustic communication in zebra finches signals when mates will take turns with parental duties

Bi-parental care may involve both cooperation and conflict between parents. Parents adjust their workload to that of their partner and this ability is likely to affect reproductive success. Whether mates communicate, either to resolve the sexual conflict or to coordinate their joint investment in parental care is a largely unaddressed question which we examined by recording wild zebra finches at the nest during incubation. Zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) partners produce vocal exchanges at the nest that can be characterized as duets. Some duets end in nest-relief (when birds take turns incubating and foraging) but some do not (when the foraging mate vocally interacts with its incubating partner by coming inside or in the vicinity of the nest). Our data indicate that the structure of the duet predicted its outcome (relief or not), with a parent calling differently before leaving or staying in the nest by modifying its vocal repertoire as well as the acoustic structure of one particular call type which is typically used inside the nest. Zebra finch partners may thus exchange on the time to take turns with parental duties. Our results show that acoustic communication between partners might be of importance in the organization of parental care and could help in understanding sexual conflict resolution or cooperation phenomena in future studies.

双亲抚育行为可能同时包含亲本间的合作与冲突。双亲会根据配偶的抚育负荷调整自身的投入量，而这种调节能力很可能会影响繁殖成功率。配偶间是否会通过交流来解决性冲突，或是协调共同的抚育投入，这一问题在很大程度上尚未得到充分探讨，我们通过在孵化期记录野生斑胸草雀（Taeniopygia guttata）的巢内行为对其展开了研究。斑胸草雀的配偶会在巢内进行可被归类为鸣唱二重唱的鸣声交流。部分二重唱会以巢内换班告终——即鸟类轮流进行孵卵与觅食，但部分二重唱则不会出现换班，此时外出觅食的亲鸟会在进入巢内或巢区附近时，与正在孵卵的配偶进行鸣声互动。我们的数据显示，二重唱的结构可预测其最终结果（是否发生换班）：亲鸟在离开巢或留守巢内前，会通过调整自身的鸣声库，以及一类典型巢内鸣声的声学特征，来改变鸣叫模式。因此，斑胸草雀的配偶间或许会就抚育职责的轮换时机进行信息交流。我们的研究结果表明，配偶间的鸣声交流或许对抚育行为的组织协调至关重要，未来的相关研究可借助这一发现进一步解析性冲突解决与合作行为等相关现象。