Fish Sounds and Mate Choice
Fish acoustic signals associated with mating behaviour are typically low-frequency sounds produced by males when in close proximity to females. However, some species make sounds that serve the function and follow the design of advertisement calls, well kn
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Fish Sounds and Mate Choice M. Clara P. Amorim, Raquel O. Vasconcelos and Paulo J. Fonseca
Abstract Fish acoustic signals associated with mating behaviour are typically low-frequency sounds produced by males when in close proximity to females. However, some species make sounds that serve the function and follow the design of advertisement calls, well known in insects, anurans, and birds. Close-range courtship acoustic signals may be used by females in mate assessment as they contain information of male quality such as size and condition. For example, sounddominant frequency, amplitude, and fatigue resistance may signal body size whereas pulse period (i.e. muscle contraction rate) and calling activity are related with body condition in some species. Some signal features, such as sound pulse number, may carry multiple messages including size and condition. Playback experiments on mate choice of a restricted number of species suggest that females prefer vocal to silent males and may use sound frequency, amplitude, and mainly calling rate when assessing males. The assessment of males by females becomes more challenging when males engage in choruses or when sounds are otherwise masked by anthropogenic noise but almost nothing is known about how these aspects affect mating decisions and fish reproductive success.
We would like to dedicate this review to Professor Vitor Almada, a person of vision and a landmark in fish behaviour in Portugal. M.C.P. Amorim (&) MARE—Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre and UIEE - Eco-Ethology Research Unit, ISPA—Instituto Universitário, Rua Jardim Do Tabaco 34, 1149-041 Lisbon, Portugal e-mail: [email protected] R.O. Vasconcelos Institute of Science and Environment, University of Saint Joseph, Rua de Londres 16, Macau, SAR China P.J. Fonseca Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Departamento de Biologia Animal, Centro de Biologia Ambiental, Bloco C2, Campo Grande, 1749-016 Lisbon, Portugal © Springer-Verlag Wien 2015 F. Ladich (ed.), Sound Communication in Fishes, Animal Signals and Communication 4, DOI 10.1007/978-3-7091-1846-7_1
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M.C.P. Amorim et al.
1.1 Introduction Acoustic signals can be regarded as sexual ornaments subject to sexual selection including mate choice (Andersson 1994; Bradbury and Vehrencamp 1998). Male calls play an important role in species recognition and sexual stimulation driving mate attraction and reproductive success in mammals (Charlton et al. 2007), birds (Catchpole and Slater 2008; Nemeth et al. 2012), anurans (Ryan 1985; Gerhardt and Huber 2002), and in insects (Gray 1997; Gerhardt and Huber 2002; Tregenza et al. 2006). Numerous studies on vocal communication of birds, anurans, and insects have shown that acoustic signals convey some aspect of male quality that influences female mating preference, but this has been less investigated in mammals and fish (Charlton et al. 2007; Amorim et al. 2013a). However, fish represent the largest group of vocal vertebrates that rely on acoustic signals during various social interactions (Ladich 2004) and, t
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