Are unfamiliar neighbours considered to be dear-enemies?
BACKGROUND: Discriminating threatening individuals from non-threatening ones allow territory owners to modulate their territorial responses according to the threat posed by each intruder. This ability reduces costs associated with territorial defence. Reduced aggression towards familiar adjacent nei...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:bfad063077624cbeabe949d5effb4f1b 2023-05-15T13:10:08+02:00 Are unfamiliar neighbours considered to be dear-enemies? Elodie Briefer Fanny Rybak Thierry Aubin 2010-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0012428 https://doaj.org/article/bfad063077624cbeabe949d5effb4f1b EN eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC2928747?pdf=render https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0012428 https://doaj.org/article/bfad063077624cbeabe949d5effb4f1b PLoS ONE, Vol 5, Iss 8, p e12428 (2010) Medicine R Science Q article 2010 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0012428 2022-12-31T00:59:21Z BACKGROUND: Discriminating threatening individuals from non-threatening ones allow territory owners to modulate their territorial responses according to the threat posed by each intruder. This ability reduces costs associated with territorial defence. Reduced aggression towards familiar adjacent neighbours, termed the dear-enemy effect, has been shown in numerous species. An important question that has never been investigated is whether territory owners perceive distant neighbours established in the same group as strangers because of their unfamiliarity, or as dear-enemies because of their group membership. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: To investigate this question, we played back to male skylarks (Alauda arvensis) songs of adjacent neighbours, distant neighbours established a few territories away in the same microdialect area and strangers. Additionally, we carried out a propagation experiment to investigate how far skylark songs are propagated in their natural habitat and we estimated repertoire similarity between adjacent neighbours, distant neighbours and strangers. We show that skylarks, in the field, respond less aggressively to songs of their distant and likely unfamiliar neighbours, as shown by the propagation experiment, compared to stranger songs. The song analysis revealed that individuals share a high amount of syllables and sequences with both their adjacent and distant neighbours, but only few syllables and no sequences with strangers. CONCLUSIONS: The observed reduction of aggression between distant neighbours thus probably results from their familiarity with the vocal group signature shared by all members of the neighbourhood. Therefore, in skylarks, dear-enemy-like relationships can be established between unfamiliar individuals who share a common acoustic code. Article in Journal/Newspaper Alauda arvensis Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles PLoS ONE 5 8 e12428 |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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ftdoajarticles |
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English |
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Medicine R Science Q |
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Medicine R Science Q Elodie Briefer Fanny Rybak Thierry Aubin Are unfamiliar neighbours considered to be dear-enemies? |
topic_facet |
Medicine R Science Q |
description |
BACKGROUND: Discriminating threatening individuals from non-threatening ones allow territory owners to modulate their territorial responses according to the threat posed by each intruder. This ability reduces costs associated with territorial defence. Reduced aggression towards familiar adjacent neighbours, termed the dear-enemy effect, has been shown in numerous species. An important question that has never been investigated is whether territory owners perceive distant neighbours established in the same group as strangers because of their unfamiliarity, or as dear-enemies because of their group membership. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: To investigate this question, we played back to male skylarks (Alauda arvensis) songs of adjacent neighbours, distant neighbours established a few territories away in the same microdialect area and strangers. Additionally, we carried out a propagation experiment to investigate how far skylark songs are propagated in their natural habitat and we estimated repertoire similarity between adjacent neighbours, distant neighbours and strangers. We show that skylarks, in the field, respond less aggressively to songs of their distant and likely unfamiliar neighbours, as shown by the propagation experiment, compared to stranger songs. The song analysis revealed that individuals share a high amount of syllables and sequences with both their adjacent and distant neighbours, but only few syllables and no sequences with strangers. CONCLUSIONS: The observed reduction of aggression between distant neighbours thus probably results from their familiarity with the vocal group signature shared by all members of the neighbourhood. Therefore, in skylarks, dear-enemy-like relationships can be established between unfamiliar individuals who share a common acoustic code. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Elodie Briefer Fanny Rybak Thierry Aubin |
author_facet |
Elodie Briefer Fanny Rybak Thierry Aubin |
author_sort |
Elodie Briefer |
title |
Are unfamiliar neighbours considered to be dear-enemies? |
title_short |
Are unfamiliar neighbours considered to be dear-enemies? |
title_full |
Are unfamiliar neighbours considered to be dear-enemies? |
title_fullStr |
Are unfamiliar neighbours considered to be dear-enemies? |
title_full_unstemmed |
Are unfamiliar neighbours considered to be dear-enemies? |
title_sort |
are unfamiliar neighbours considered to be dear-enemies? |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2010 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0012428 https://doaj.org/article/bfad063077624cbeabe949d5effb4f1b |
genre |
Alauda arvensis |
genre_facet |
Alauda arvensis |
op_source |
PLoS ONE, Vol 5, Iss 8, p e12428 (2010) |
op_relation |
http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC2928747?pdf=render https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0012428 https://doaj.org/article/bfad063077624cbeabe949d5effb4f1b |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0012428 |
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PLoS ONE |
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5 |
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8 |
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e12428 |
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