Sexual preferences for songs in female domestic canaries (Serinus canaria): can late song exposure, without social reinforcement, influence the effects of early tutoring?

Abstract

We studied the relative effects of early and late song exposure without social reinforcement on female sexual preferences in the domestic canary (Serinus canaria). Young female canaries were tape-tutored during their first 4 months of life with songs of either domestic or wild male canaries (DT and WT conditions). When they reached sexual maturity, these females were placed in breeding conditions and some of them were re-exposed to songs. During this “late exposure” the females, according to their experimental group, were either presented with new domestic or wild songs (DL and WL conditions) over 40 days, or were kept without song stimulation (− condition). Afterwards, we assessed the sexual preferences of all the females for domestic or wild songs using the copulation solicitation display assay. The results showed that both DT/– and DT/DL females showed a clear preference for domestic songs. However, whereas WT/WL females preferred wild songs; WT/– females did not show any preference. Finally, DT/WL and WT/DL females failed to show any preference. It appeared that a second song experience at the beginning of their first breeding season, without any social reinforcement, allowed the emergence or stabilisation of early preferences, or interfered with these early preferences depending on whether the song category used during the late exposure phase matched or not the song category used during the early tutoring phase, and also depending on which category was used during the first tutoring phase. This behavioural plasticity could help young adult females to adjust the ‘standard’ they built during infancy to new environmental conditions.