Date of Award
2016
Publication Type
Master Thesis
Degree Name
M.Sc.
Department
Biological Sciences
Keywords
Dear Enemy Effect; Fertility; Neighbour-stranger discrimination; Red-eyed Vireo; Song Sparrow; Testosterone
Supervisor
Mennill, Daniel
Rights
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Abstract
Many territorial animals respond more intensely to strangers than neighbours. This phenomenon is known as “the dear enemy effect”. This phenomenon occurs because strangers represent a threat to territory takeover and parentage whereas neighbours only represent a threat to parentage. Many studies have investigated whether diverse animals exhibit the dear enemy effect, but few have examined the underlying factors that mediate this phenomenon. I tested whether three factors – male repertoire size, female fertility status, and male testosterone levels – influence the dear enemy effect in male songbirds. I found that repertoire size had no effect on dear enemy effect expression; that female fertility status influenced flexibility in dear enemy effect expression over a breeding season; and that testosterone does not seem to be associated with dear enemy effect expression. Overall these results show that several factors influence the dear enemy effect and that the dear enemy effect is a dynamic phenomenon.
Recommended Citation
Moser-Purdy, Christopher, "Factors Affecting The Expression of the Dear Enemy Effect in Territorial Songbirds" (2016). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 5854.
https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd/5854