Abstract
Females from a wide range of species have been shown to prefer males producing exaggerated, elaborate sexual displays. The question of whether males can adapt their behaviour in order to accentuate these preferred aspects has received less attention. Male bowerbirds provide an excellent system in which to address this question. Males build and decorate structures—bowers—which females use to assess males. Males exhibiting high numbers of particular decorations on their bowers receive increased mating success. Males can choose what objects to place on bowers and where to put them. Therefore, their behaviour can directly influence their mating success. I studied a population of spotted bowerbirds Chlamydera maculata in central Queensland, Australia. I show, using two sets of observations and a choice experiment, that males exhibit strong and consistent preferences for certain objects. The male's preferences have an adaptive value, targeting objects that predict his mating success. Such behaviour operates at three levels. Fundamentally, object selection and acquisition is biased in favour of certain objects for use as decorations. These decorations are then placed prominently on the bower, within the avenue. Finally, males actively proffer influential decorations, used as props, to visiting females, ensuring that crucial components of the sexual display cannot be ignored.
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Acknowledgements
I thank the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service for access to Taunton National Park (Scientific). Birds were banded under the authority of the Australian Bird and Bat Banding Scheme. The work was approved by the James Cook University ethics committee. G. Anelay, R. Coe, D. Harris, G. Madgewick, A. Miles, K. Moore, K. Munro, N. Ockendon, L. Pitt, G. Porter and R. Sawle helped in finding bowers, scoring videos and conducting the experiment. I thank Andrew Balmford, John Endler, Andrew Cockburn and three anonymous referees for helpful comments on the manuscript. I was supported by a NERC studentship and funding from the Royal Society to Andrew Balmford.
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Madden, J.R. Male spotted bowerbirds preferentially choose, arrange and proffer objects that are good predictors of mating success. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 53, 263–268 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-003-0582-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-003-0582-7