IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/beheco/v23y2012i2p375-383..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Vocal behavior predicts reproductive success in a teleost fish

Author

Listed:
  • Raquel O. Vasconcelos
  • Rita Carriço
  • Andreia Ramos
  • Teresa Modesto
  • Paul J. Fonseca
  • M. Clara. P. Amorim

Abstract

The relation between acoustic signaling and reproductive success is important to understand the evolution of vocal communication systems and has been well studied in several taxa but never clearly shown in fish. This study aims to investigate whether vocal behavior affects the reproductive success in the Lusitanian toadfish (Halobatrachus didactylus) that relies on acoustic communication to attract mates. We recorded 56 nest-holding (type I) males during the breeding season and analyzed the calling performance and acoustic features of the mate advertising sounds (boatwhistles) exhibited over circa 2 weeks. Hormonal levels of the subjects and the number of eggs (reproductive success) present in the respective nests were quantified. Nesting males attracted both females and other males, namely smaller type I males with significantly lower total length (TL), body condition, sonic muscle mass, gonad mass, and accessory glands mass. Calling rate (CR), calling effort (CE) (% time spent calling), and sound dominant frequency were significantly higher in nesting males with clutches than in those without clutches. Sex steroids (11-ketotestosterone and testosterone) were not correlated with vocal parameters or number of eggs. Maximum CR and CE were the best predictors of the number of eggs. In addition, these vocal variables were best explained by male's TL, condition, and sonic muscle mass. We provide first evidence that vocal behavior significantly determines reproductive success in a vocal fish and show that acoustic signaling at higher and constant rates can operate as an indicator of the male's size and body condition and probably of elevated motivation for reproduction.

Suggested Citation

  • Raquel O. Vasconcelos & Rita Carriço & Andreia Ramos & Teresa Modesto & Paul J. Fonseca & M. Clara. P. Amorim, 2012. "Vocal behavior predicts reproductive success in a teleost fish," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 23(2), pages 375-383.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:beheco:v:23:y:2012:i:2:p:375-383.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/beheco/arr199
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David J. White & Andrew P. King & Meredith J. West & Julie Gros-Louis & Elaina M. Tuttle, 2010. "Effects of singing on copulation success and egg production in brown-headed cowbirds, Molothrus ater," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 21(2), pages 211-218.
    2. Jonathan S. F. Lee & Andrew H. Bass, 2006. "Dimorphic male midshipman fish: reduced sexual selection or sexual selection for reduced characters?," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 17(4), pages 670-675, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Silvia S Pedroso & Iain Barber & Ola Svensson & Paulo J Fonseca & Maria Clara P Amorim, 2013. "Courtship Sounds Advertise Species Identity and Male Quality in Sympatric Pomatoschistus spp. Gobies," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(6), pages 1-10, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.

      More about this item

      Statistics

      Access and download statistics

      Corrections

      All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:beheco:v:23:y:2012:i:2:p:375-383.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

      If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

      If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

      If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

      For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/beheco .

      Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

      IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.