As we have learned in class, honest signals provide truth about the quality of an individual. An example of honest advertising has recently been discovered in male fallow deer, who use “groans” to indicate their competitive abilities to rivals and potential mates. This signal has even been shown to change over the years in accordance with changes in status and age.
Researchers tagged males as fawns, allowing them to track males as they aged. They also were able to record male-male competitions, matings, and vocalizations during ruts. Upon analysis of the signals, researchers discovered that the calls contained honest indicators of male quality that reflected their change in rank. Information about individual identity was also encoded, but these signals were found to be unreliable over a deer’s lifetime. Researchers noted that most investigations do not take into account the possibility of vocalizations changing with age.
Researchers also indicate that this study can provide more information about communication that occurs during the rut. Furthermore, they predict that this characteristic of communication is also present in other species in which males vocalize frequently during breeding and live for many years.
To read “Deer Honesty: Mating Deer Calls Change Year-by-Year With Status of Deer,” please click here.
Posted by Katie Kalutkiewicz
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Does antler size have anything to do with ranking among male deer? Couldn't antler size also be an honest indicator of the quality of an individual? Have these researchers correlated this communication behavior with changes in antler size?
ReplyDeleteAbbie Lamarre-DeJesus
Antler size is in fact an honest signal of male quality. Researchers in France and Sweden discovered this phenomenon in roe deer. Antlers are living bone tissue, and deer must allocate an enormous amount of energy to achieve big antlers. Also, antler size correlates with male rank. Research on southern mule deer has revealed that only males with large antlers copulated with females. The number of antler tines was also discovered to be a reliable indicator of social rank. I could not find whether changes in antler size correspond to changes in vocal communication. Since the vocal aspect was recently discovered, it’s possible that researchers are still investigating this pattern.
ReplyDeleteThere is a really interesting article from 2007 that discusses antler size in more detail: “Antler size provides an honest signal of male phenotypic quality in roe deer.” It has a lot of applications to what we have learned in class, and it’s cool to see how many traits are correlated with antler size!
Posted by Katie Kalutkiewicz