title: Responses of collared doves to playback of coos.
abstract: Dove coos are assumed to play an important role in territorial defence and mate attraction. Playback experiments of coos may provide insight into their information content. In a pilot experiment, territorial males responded strongly to playback of perch coos. We were able to quantify the response by three behavioural measurements. A second series of playback showed that the experimental set-up and the behavioural measurements were suitable to demonstrate the perception of a difference between two distinctive versions of a perch coo. A stronger response was elicited by coos containing modulated elements.
authors.affiliation: Section of Ethology, Institute of Evolutionary and Ecological Sciences, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9516, 2300 RA Leiden, Netherlands.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Slabbekoorn
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ten Gate