Elsevier

Animal Behaviour

Volume 35, Issue 5, October 1987, Pages 1347-1355
Animal Behaviour

Do zebra finch males that have been raised by another species still tend to select a conspecific song tutor?

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0003-3472(87)80007-6Get rights and content

Abstract

Male zebra finches, Taeniopygia guttata, learnt their song from their Bengalese finch, Lonchura striata, foster-father, provided that they could interact more with him than with adult male conspecifics. When, at independence, they were allowed full contact with an adult male zebra finch, while their contact with the foster-species was decreased to allow visual and vocal contact only, the young were as likely to be influenced by the conspecific male as by the foster-father in their choice of song tutor. Young raised by their own species did not show this change in song tutor selection which suggests that the behaviour of a conspecific tutor is the most suitable stimulus for song learning.

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Present address: Department of Zoology and Marine Biology, The University, St Andrews, Fife KY 16 9TS, Scotland, U.K.

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