The evolution of song repertoires and immune defence in birds
Song repertoires (the number of different song types sung by a male) in birds provide males with an advantage in sexual selection because females prefer males with large repertoires, and females may benefit because offspring sired by preferred males have high viability. Furthermore, males with large...
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Published in | Proceedings of the Royal Society. B, Biological sciences Vol. 267; no. 1439; pp. 165 - 169 |
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Main Authors | , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
England
The Royal Society
22.01.2000
Royal Society, The |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Song repertoires (the number of different song types sung by a male) in birds provide males with an advantage in sexual selection because females prefer males with large repertoires, and females may benefit because offspring sired by preferred males have high viability. Furthermore, males with large repertoires suffer less from malarial parasites, indicating that a large repertoire may reflect health status. We hypothesize that sexual selection may cause a coevolutionary increase in parasite virulence and host immune defence because sexual selection increases the risk of multiple infections that select for high virulence. Alternatively, a female mate preference for healthy males will affect the coevolutionary dynamics of host-parasite interactions by selecting for increased virulence and hence high investment by hosts in immune function. In a comparative study of birds, repertoire size and relative size of the spleen, which is an important immune defence organ, were strongly, positively correlated accounting for almost half of the variance. This finding suggests that host-parasite interactions have played an important role in the evolution of song repertoires in birds. |
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Bibliography: | istex:B40D36281B789AAC0A7E537C3E0DD90CE2D29AC7 ark:/67375/V84-RQ37GPZK-F ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-1 content type line 23 ObjectType-Article-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 |
ISSN: | 0962-8452 1471-2954 |
DOI: | 10.1098/rspb.2000.0982 |