What makes a multimodal signal attractive? A preference function approach

Kelly L. Ronald, Ruiyu Zeng, David J. White, Esteban Fernández-Juricic and Jeffrey R. Lucas

Behavioral Ecology, 2017, vol. 28, issue 3, 677-687

Abstract: Lay Summary Many mating signals are multimodal, combining elements that stimulate different sensory systems. How do these different elements affect female choice? We asked female brown headed cowbirds which combinations of male song and visual display they most preferred. We found that the intensity of movement in the visual display can change the female’s ranking of a song. Selection may then favor males that possess a range of different types of songs and visual displays.

Keywords: Multimodal signals; Molothrus ater; preference functions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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