01140nas a2200193 4500008004100000245007400041210006900115520049600184653002400680653002800704653001900732653001400751653001800765100002800783700002500811700002500836700001600861856006900877 2019 eng d00aSignificant Instances in Motor Gestures of Different Songbird Species0 aSignificant Instances in Motor Gestures of Different Songbird Sp3 a

The nervous system representation of a motor program is an open problem for most behaviors. In birdsong production, it has been proposed that some special temporal instances, linked to significant aspects of the motor gestures used to generate the song, are preferentially represented in the cortex. In this work, we compute these temporal instances for two species, and report which of them is better suited to test the proposed coding (as well as alternative models) against data.

10abirdsong production10acortical representation10amotor gestures10asongbirds10asparse coding1 aOrtiz, Javier, N. Lassa1 aHerbert, Cecilia, T.1 aMindlin, Gabriel, B.1 aAmador, Ana uhttps://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fphy.2019.00142/full01329nas a2200193 4500008004100000245015700041210006900198520065800267653001500925653001000940653001800950653001800968653001400986653001701000100002001017700002401037700001801061856005601079 2019 eng d00aEavesdropping on a heterospecific alarm call in the giant root-rat (Tachyorytes macrocephalus), an important prey of the Ethiopian wolf (Canis simensis)0 aEavesdropping on a heterospecific alarm call in the giant rootra3 a

The giant root-rat of the Bale Mountains, Ethiopia has been reported to have a mutualistic relationship with a passerine, which involves eavesdropping on its alarm call. We tested this in a field playback experiment. Besides the alarm call, we included two sounds potentially acting as alarm cues and one as a control. Little reaction of root-rats was detected to the bird alarm call. However, intensive reaction was detected to an alarm call of the black-clawed brush-furred rat, a social rodent often occupying root-rats’ burrows. This result is understandable given the two rodents have the same principal predator, the Ethiopian wolf.

10aAfroalpine10aAlarm10aAnti-predator10aeavesdropping10aMutualism10aWing whistle1 aHrouzková, Ema1 aBernasová, Eliška1 aŠklíba, Jan uhttp://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10164-019-00618-102237nas a2200229 4500008004100000245010100041210006900142260001600211300001400227490000800241520150700249100003101756700001801787700002201805700002001827700001901847700002301866700002301889700002501912700001501937856005501952 2017 eng d00aNegative impact of urban noise on sexual receptivity and clutch size in female domestic canaries0 aNegative impact of urban noise on sexual receptivity and clutch  cJan-11-2017 a843 - 8530 v1233 a

In oscines, male song stimulates female reproduction and females are known to adjust both their sexual preferences and their maternal investment according to song quality. Female domestic canaries are especially responsive to wide frequency bandwidth (4 kHz) male songs emitted with a high-repetition syllable rate and low minimal frequencies (1 kHz). We previously showed that low-frequency urban noise decreases female sexual responsiveness for these low-frequency songs (1–5 kHz) through auditory masking. Based on the differential allocation hypothesis, we predicted that urban noise exposure will equally affect female maternal investment. Using a crossover design, we broadcast low-frequency songs to females either in an overlapping noise condition or in an alternating noise condition. Females decreased both their sexual responsiveness and their clutch size in the overlapping noise treatment relative to the alternative noise treatment. No differences were found concerning egg size or egg composition (yolk and albumen mass, testosterone concentration). Due to our experimental design, we can exclude a general impact of noisy conditions and thereby provide evidence for a detrimental effect through masking on avian courtship and reproductive output. These results suggest that noisy conditions may also affect avian communication in outdoor conditions, which may partly explain field reports on noise-dependent breeding success and reduced breeding densities at noisy sites.

1 aAunay, Guillaume, Huet des1 aGrenna, Marco1 aSlabbekoorn, Hans1 aNicolas, Pierre1 aNagle, Laurent1 aLeboucher, Gérard1 aMalacarne, Giorgio1 aDraganoiu, Tudor, I.1 aFusani, L. uhttp://doi.wiley.com/10.1111/eth.2017.123.issue-11