Journal
JOURNAL OF ETHOLOGY
Volume 22, Issue 1, Pages 29-35Publisher
SPRINGER JAPAN KK
DOI: 10.1007/s10164-003-0094-y
Keywords
birdsong learning; cross-modal stimulation; social interaction; songbirds; visual deprivation
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Song acquisition in young male zebra finches, Taeniopygia guttata, is viewed as a learning process by imitation from a visible conspecific male acting as a song tutor. The role played by non-singing conspecific females in this process has been poorly documented. The influence of social contact on the song learning of blindfolded young males was investigated in both female-raised and pair-raised birds. Pupils with both eyes occluded from about 35 to 65 days post-hatch, the sensitive phase for song learning, copied significantly more from an adult male sharing their cage when tutored in the presence of a female sibling than in her absence. Interestingly, the effect was more pronounced in female-raised birds compared to pair-raised birds. I conclude that physical contact in the absence of visual cues is sufficient for song imitation to occur. The results demonstrate an instance of social stimulation by non-singing females in the song acquisition of male songbirds.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available