title: The couple that sings together stays together: duetting, aggression and extra-pair paternity in a promiscuous bird species.
abstract: When individuals mate outside the pair bond, males should employ behaviours such as aggression or vocal displays (e.g. duetting) that help assure paternity of the offspring they care for. We tested whether male paternity was associated with aggression or duetting in the red-backed fairy-wren, a species exhibiting high rates of extra-pair paternity. During simulated territorial intrusions, aggression and duetting were variable among and repeatable within males, suggesting behavioural consistency of individuals. Males with quicker and stronger duet responses were cuckolded less often than males with slower and weaker responses. In contrast, physical aggression was not correlated with male paternity. These results suggest that either acoustic mate guarding or male-female vocal negotiations via duetting lead to increased paternity assurance, whereas physical aggression does not.
authors.affiliation: Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA dtbaldas@bio.miami.edu.
authors.forename: Daniel T
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1749-548X
authors.initials: DT
authors.lastname: Baldassarre
authors.affiliation: Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA.
authors.forename: Emma I
authors.initials: EI
authors.lastname: Greig
authors.affiliation: Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA.
authors.forename: Michael S
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7585-4578
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Webster
mesh_terms: D000374:Aggression; D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D052586:Mating Preference, Animal; D011793:Queensland; D020308:Songbirds / Q000502:physiology*; D014828:Vocalization, Animal
keywords: aggression; duetting; extra-pair mating; fairy-wren