Female zebra finches prefer the songs of males who quickly solve a novel foraging task to the songs of males unable to solve the task

Correlative evidence suggests that high problem-solving and foraging abilities in a mate are associated with direct fitness advantages, so it would benefit females to prefer problem-solving males. Recent work has also shown that females of several bird species who directly observe males prefer those that can solve a novel foraging task over those that cannot. In addition to or instead of direct observation of cognitive skills, many species utilize assessment signals when choosing a mate. Here we test whether females can select a problem-solving male over a non-solving male when presented only with a signal known to be used in mate assessment: song. Using an operant conditioning assay, we compared female zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) preference for the songs of males that could quickly solve a novel foraging task to the songs of males that could not solve the task. Females were never housed with the test subject males whose song they heard, and the only information provided about the...

关联研究证据表明，配偶具备高超的问题解决与觅食能力，与直接的适合度优势存在关联，因此雌性偏好具备问题解决能力的雄性将使其获益。近期研究还证实，多种鸟类的雌性在直接观察雄性行为后，更倾向于选择能够完成新型觅食任务的雄性，而非无法完成该任务的个体。除直接观察认知能力之外，或以其作为替代途径，许多物种在择偶时会利用评估信号。本研究旨在探究：当仅提供已知用于择偶评估的信号——鸣唱声时，雌性是否能够筛选出具备问题解决能力的雄性，而非无此能力的雄性。本研究采用操作条件反射实验范式，比较了雌性斑胸草雀（Taeniopygia guttata）对两类雄性鸣唱声的偏好差异：一类雄性能够快速完成新型觅食任务，另一类则无法完成该任务。受试雌性从未与其听过鸣唱声的试验雄性个体共养，且研究所提供的唯一相关信息为……