Do a little (fast) dance ... win her heart but on her terms
The courtship between males and females is filled with mystery but also with a great deal of pomp and circumstance. Take the golden-collared manakins (Manacus vitellinus) - when the male sets his sights on a female, this wee-sized bird launches into a highly demanding, super-charged courtship dance. Now researchers from Europe and the United States have discovered that female golden-collared manakins choose mates based on subtle differences in motor performance during these dances. The findings are presented in the online journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. One word is enough to describe the dance of golden-collared manakin: fast. 'The male jumps like he's been shot out of a cannon,' explains Professor Barney Schlinger, one of the co-authors of the study, from the Departments of Integrative Biology and Physiology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), United States. 'It's exquisite. He sails like an acrobat and lands perfectly on a perch, like a gymnast landing a flawless dismount. Not only is there power to his muscle contractions but incredible speed as well.' Lead author Julia Barske, a graduate student and doctoral candidate at UCLA, points out that the females choose the faster suitors, particularly those that demonstrate better motor coordination, as well as more courtship activity. The findings indicate that the females chose males that took all of 50 milliseconds to complete the courtship dance compared with the slower males that took 80 milliseconds. Professor Schlinger explains that the courtship dance shows the neuromuscular capability of the male bird. It should also be noted how the bird's heart rate during the courtship is more than double, as high as 1,300 beats per minute compared to the normal rate of 600 beats per minute or lower. The heart rate is very high for birds. The researchers suggest that the courtship display can represent an animal's capacity for survival. In particular, having greater neuromuscular capability strengthens the animal's chances of survival in the wild. The faster the bird is, the faster it can escape danger, and even death. Using high-speed video and sophisticated cameras that produce 125 images per second, the researchers recorded the courtship of the male golden-collared manakin. During the ritual, the males gather together in a small area, and each jumps from small tree to small tree while making a loud snapping and fast sound with their wings. Once perched, the bird quickly turns to expose his feathers to the female. The male's behaviour is fast, intense, complex and accurate, according to the researchers. The interesting thing though is that the male does this because it is what the female wants. 'If the female rewards a slightly faster behaviour, then the males will get faster,' Professor Schlinger says. 'We propose that elaborate, acrobatic courtship dances evolve because they reflect the motor skills and cardiovascular function of the males.' Contributing to this study were life scientists from the University of Ferrara in Italy, and the Germany-based Max Planck Institute for Ornithology and Konstanz University.For more information, please visit:UCLA:http://www.ucla.edu/Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences:http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/
Countries
Germany, Italy, United States