Social Influences on Mate Choice in Japanese Quail, Coturnix japonica

Abstract

Classical theories of how animals make mate choices have focused on each sex's inherited preferences for the other sex's traits or behaviours. The present thesis was undertaken to investigate how social factors play a role in determining an animal's choice of mate. In the series of experiments reported here, 'focal' female and male Japanese quail were given the opportunity to observe another quail (a 'model') of the same sex mating with a conspecific of the opposite sex (a 'target'). Results of experiments described in chapters 2 and 3 revealed that focal females: (1) displayed an increased tendency to affiliate with male targets that they had observed mating with model females, and (2) found a target male more attractive if he had been observed just standing near another female. In Chapter 4, social influences or male mate choice were investigated. Focal males: (1) exhibited a decrease in their preference for female targets that they had observed mating with model males, and (2) showed a decrease in preference for a female target only if she had been seen mating with or being courted by a model male, not simply standing near him. Finally, in chapter 5, it was determined that for quail of both sexes, affiliation time was a reliable predictor of focal subjects' actual choice of a mate. Taken together, these results are consistent with the hypothesis that females gain benefits from attending to the mate choices of other females, whereas for males there is a cost associated with mating with a female that had recently muted with another male.