Relative Importance of Three Traits: Banding extent, banding symmetry and song rate, on the mate choice of female zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata). Romy Shockey, Department of Biology, York College Introduction Female birds often select for traits that indicate a male's state. Selected traits often correlate with the male's health or ability to provide care for offspring (Hill 1995). Asymmetry, in both sexual ornaments and general features, is caused by stresses such as poor nutrition and parasites. Females prefer males that show symmetrical patterns (Swaddle and Cuthill 1994). Melanin-related patterns such as black bands are often indicative of a male's level of dominance, which can affect their territory size and the resources available to them, and may be a selected trait (Ulrika 2003). Females will choose a male with a high song rate over one with a desirable beak color, showing that song rate is more important to females than coloration (Houtman 1992). Prior studies examining 3 or more traits did not look at which trait was more important to females, or found that most of the target traits were not subjected to sexual selection at all (Safran and McGraw 2004, Price 1983). Objective Determine which of the 3 traits (song rate, chest band extent, and chest band symmetry) plays the largest role in mate selection in zebra finches. Models of males will pair undesirable phenotypes of one trait with desirable phenotypes of the other. The favorable trait of the model most popular with female subjects will be the more important of the 2 in determining mate selection. Literature Cited Hill, G.E Evolutionary inference from patterns of female preference and male displace. Behavioral Ecology 6.3 : Houtman, A.M Female Zebra Finches Choose Extra-Pair Copulations with Genetically Attractive Males. Biological Sciences. 249: 3-6. Price, T.D. Sexual selection on body size, territory and plumage variable in a population of Darwins finches. Evolution 38.2: Safran, R.J. And McGraw, K.J Plumage coloration, not length or symmetry of tail-streamers, is a sexually selected trait in North American barn swallows. Behavioral Ecology 15.3: Swaddle, J.P. and Cuthill, I.C Female zebra finches prefer males with symmetrical chest plumage. Proceedings: Biological Sciences. 258: Ulrika, C The use of multiple cues in mate choice. Biological Reviews : Acknowledgements I would like to thank Dr Rehnberg for his assistance in designing and troubleshooting this project, my family for helping to build the choice chamber, and the friends who provided an extra set of hands and supported me while I ran the trials. Conclusions Female zebra finches were unresponsive to model males. A similar study using modified live males would be necessary to achieve the objective. Methods 3 trials with female finches in a 4-way choice chamber with model males varying along one trait Rate phenotypes from most favored to least (measured by time spent near the model) New trials with model males varying along 2 traits Female Finches (n=9) Song Rate Chest Band ExtentChest Band Symmetry Song | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 Extent | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 Song | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 Sym. | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 Extent | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 Sym. | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 Method V1 Troubleshooting: Females showed no activity in extent and symmetry trials when using Method Version 1. Song was removed as variable, and was instead played from all sections at a constant rate. Female Finches (n=9) Chest Band ExtentChest Band Symmetry Extent | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 Sym. | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 Method V2/3 Troubleshooting: Females showed a preference for a position rather than a model in Version 2. Other females were removed from the surrounding area to eliminate a confounding variable. Results V2 Results V3 Table 1. Individual data from active birds in version 3 of the experiment. Banding Extent Female # B1 low 1 B2 med-low 1 Norm. Band 1 B4 high 1 13, 110, 01, 10, 0 21, 61, 121, 101, 15 31, 60, 0 Banding Symmetry Female #Asym-L 1 Asym-C 1 Asym-R 1 Normal 1 110, 392, 55, 873, 14 21, 2040, 0 3 1, 15 1 Data presented as Entries, Time (s) Expected Results for Live Males Top view of the 4-way choice chamber (left) and an interior view of one arm (right).