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Ivanitskii VV, Marova IM. The Syntactic Organization of Bird Song. BIOL BULL+ 2022. [DOI: 10.1134/s1062359022080076] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/13/2023]
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Williams H, Scharf A, Ryba AR, Ryan Norris D, Mennill DJ, Newman AEM, Doucet SM, Blackwood JC. Cumulative cultural evolution and mechanisms for cultural selection in wild bird songs. Nat Commun 2022; 13:4001. [PMID: 35821243 PMCID: PMC9276793 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-31621-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/30/2020] [Accepted: 06/24/2022] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Cumulative cultural evolution, the accumulation of sequential changes within a single socially learned behaviour that results in improved function, is prominent in humans and has been documented in experimental studies of captive animals and managed wild populations. Here, we provide evidence that cumulative cultural evolution has occurred in the learned songs of Savannah sparrows. In a first step, "click trains" replaced "high note clusters" over a period of three decades. We use mathematical modelling to show that this replacement is consistent with the action of selection, rather than drift or frequency-dependent bias. Generations later, young birds elaborated the "click train" song form by adding more clicks. We show that the new songs with more clicks elicit stronger behavioural responses from both males and females. Therefore, we suggest that a combination of social learning, innovation, and sexual selection favoring a specific discrete trait was followed by directional sexual selection that resulted in naturally occurring cumulative cultural evolution in the songs of this wild animal population.
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Affiliation(s)
- Heather Williams
- Biology Department, Williams College, Williamstown, 01267, MA, USA.
| | - Andrew Scharf
- Biology Department, Williams College, Williamstown, 01267, MA, USA
- Mathematics and Statistics Department, Williams College, Williamstown, 01267, MA, USA
| | - Anna R Ryba
- Biology Department, Williams College, Williamstown, 01267, MA, USA
- The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Ave., New York, 10021, NY, USA
| | - D Ryan Norris
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, N1G 2W1, ON, Canada
| | - Daniel J Mennill
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Windsor, Windsor, N9B 3P4, ON, Canada
| | - Amy E M Newman
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, N1G 2W1, ON, Canada
| | - Stéphanie M Doucet
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of Windsor, Windsor, N9B 3P4, ON, Canada
| | - Julie C Blackwood
- Mathematics and Statistics Department, Williams College, Williamstown, 01267, MA, USA
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Williams H, Lachlan RF. Evidence for cumulative cultural evolution in bird song. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2022; 377:20200322. [PMID: 34894731 PMCID: PMC8666912 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0322] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/13/2021] [Accepted: 10/05/2021] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
In studies of cumulative cultural evolution in non-human animals, the focus is most often on incremental changes that increase the efficacy of an existing form of socially learned behaviour, such as the refinement of migratory pathways. In this paper, we compare the songs of different species to describe patterns of evolution in the acoustic structure of bird songs, and explore the question of what building blocks might underlie cumulative cultural evolution of bird song using a comparative approach. We suggest that three steps occurred: first, imitation of independent sounds, or notes, via social learning; second, the formation of categories of note types; and third, assembling note types into sequences with defined structures. Simple sequences can then be repeated to form simple songs or concatenated with other sequences to form segmented songs, increasing complexity. Variant forms of both the notes and the sequencing rules may then arise due to copy errors and innovation. Some variants may become established in the population because of learning biases or selection, increasing signal efficiency, or because of cultural drift. Cumulative cultural evolution of bird songs thus arises from cognitive processes such as vocal imitation, categorization during memorization and learning biases applied to basic acoustic building blocks. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'The emergence of collective knowledge and cumulative culture in animals, humans and machines'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Heather Williams
- Biology Department, Williams College, Williamstown, MA 01267, USA
| | - Robert F. Lachlan
- Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway University of London, London TW20 0EX, UK
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Williams H. Mechanisms of Cultural Evolution in the Songs of Wild Bird Populations. Front Psychol 2021; 12:643343. [PMID: 33981272 PMCID: PMC8107227 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.643343] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/17/2020] [Accepted: 03/10/2021] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Young songbirds draw the source material for their learned songs from parents, peers, and unrelated adults, as well as from innovation. These learned songs are used for intraspecific communication, and have well-documented roles for such functions as territory maintenance and mate attraction. The songs of wild populations differ, forming local "dialects" that may shift over time, suggesting that cultural evolution is at work. Recent work has focused on the mechanisms responsible for the cultural evolution of bird songs within a population, including drift, learning biases (such as conformity and rare-form copying), and selection (including sexual selection). In many songs or song repertoires, variability is partitioned, with some songs or song segments being stable and consistent, while others vary within the population and across time, and still others undergo population-wide transitions over time. This review explores the different mechanisms that shape the cultural evolution of songs in wild populations, with specific reference to a long-term investigation of a single population of philopatric Savannah sparrows. Males learn a single four-segment song during their 1st year and sing the same song thereafter. Within this song, the buzz segment is a population marker, and may be stable for decades - variant forms occur but eventually disappear. In contrast, the middle segment is highly variable both within the population and over time; changes in relative prevalence of different forms may be due to cultural drift or a rare-form learning bias. Within the introductory segment, a high note cluster was replaced by a click train between 1982 and 2010, following an S-shaped trajectory characteristic of both selective sweeps in population genetics and the replacement of one form by another in human language. In the case of the Savannah sparrows, this replacement may have been due to sexual selection. In subsequent generations, the number of clicks within trains increased, a form of cultural directional selection. In contrast to the narrowing of a trait's range during directional selection in genetic systems, variation in the number of clicks in a train increased as the mean value shifted because improvisation during song learning allowed the range of the trait to expand. Thus, in the single short song of the Savannah sparrow, at least four different mechanisms appear to contribute to three different types of cultural evolutionary outcomes. In the future, it will be import to explore the conditions that favor the application of specific (and perhaps conditional) learning rules, and studies such as the ongoing song seeding experiment in the Kent Island Savannah sparrow population will help in understanding the mechanisms that promote or repress changes in a population's song.
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Affiliation(s)
- Heather Williams
- Biology Department, Williams College, Williamstown, MA, United States
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Zsebők S, Herczeg G, Blázi G, Laczi M, Nagy G, Szász E, Markó G, Török J, Garamszegi LZ. Short- and long-term repeatability and pseudo-repeatability of bird song: sensitivity of signals to varying environments. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2017. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-017-2379-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
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Garamszegi LZ. A simple statistical guide for the analysis of behaviour when data are constrained due to practical or ethical reasons. Anim Behav 2016. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2015.11.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
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Ivanitskii VV, Marova IM, Antipov VA. Sequential organization in the song of thrush nightingale (Luscinia luscinia): clustering and sequential order of the song types. BIOACOUSTICS 2016. [DOI: 10.1080/09524622.2016.1239132] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- V. V. Ivanitskii
- Faculty of Biology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia
| | - I. M. Marova
- Faculty of Biology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia
| | - V. A. Antipov
- Faculty of Biology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia
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Nelson DA, Poesel A. Tutor choice and imitation accuracy during song learning in a wild population of the Puget Sound white-crowned sparrow. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2014. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-014-1782-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/05/2023]
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The causes and evolutionary consequences of mixed singing in two hybridizing songbird species (Luscinia spp.). PLoS One 2013; 8:e60172. [PMID: 23577089 PMCID: PMC3618175 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0060172] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/21/2012] [Accepted: 02/22/2013] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Bird song plays an important role in the establishment and maintenance of prezygotic reproductive barriers. When two closely related species come into secondary contact, song convergence caused by acquisition of heterospecific songs into the birds’ repertoires is often observed. The proximate mechanisms responsible for such mixed singing, and its effect on the speciation process, are poorly understood. We used a combination of genetic and bioacoustic analyses to test whether mixed singing observed in the secondary contact zone of two passerine birds, the Thrush Nightingale (Luscinia luscinia) and the Common Nightingale (L. megarhynchos), is caused by introgressive hybridization. We analysed song recordings of both species from allopatric and sympatric populations together with genotype data from one mitochondrial and seven nuclear loci. Semi-automated comparisons of our recordings with an extensive catalogue of Common Nightingale song types confirmed that most of the analysed sympatric Thrush Nightingale males were ‘mixed singers’ that use heterospecific song types in their repertoires. None of these ‘mixed singers’ possessed any alleles introgressed from the Common Nightingale, suggesting that they were not backcross hybrids. We also analysed songs of five individuals with intermediate phenotype, which were identified as F1 hybrids between the Thrush Nightingale female and the Common Nightingale male by genetic analysis. Songs of three of these hybrids corresponded to the paternal species (Common Nightingale) but the remaining two sung a mixed song. Our results suggest that although hybridization might increase the tendency for learning songs from both parental species, interspecific cultural transmission is the major proximate mechanism explaining the occurrence of mixed singers among the sympatric Thrush Nightingales. We also provide evidence that mixed singing does not substantially increase the rate of interspecific hybridization and discuss the possible adaptive value of this phenomenon in nightingales.
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Sprau P, Roth T, Amrhein V, Naguib M. Distance-dependent responses by eavesdroppers on neighbour–stranger interactions in nightingales. Anim Behav 2012. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2012.01.015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/14/2022]
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Sanz CM, Morgan DB. Elemental variation in the termite fishing of wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Biol Lett 2011; 7:634-7. [PMID: 21411449 PMCID: PMC3130241 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2011.0088] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/22/2011] [Accepted: 02/22/2011] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Chimpanzee tool behaviours vary dramatically in their complexity and extent of geographical distribution. The use of tool sets with specific design features to gather termites extends across a large portion of central Africa. Detailed examination of the composition and uniformity of such complex tool tasks has the potential to advance our understanding of the cognitive capabilities of tool users and processes underlying the maintenance of technological skills. In this study, we examined variation in chimpanzee tool use in termite gathering from video-recorded sequences that were scored to the level of functionally distinct behavioural elements. Overall, we found a high degree of similarity in tool-using techniques exhibited by individuals in this population. The number of elements in each individual's repertoire often exceeded that necessary to accomplish the task, with consistent differences in repertoire sizes between age classes. Adults and subadults had the largest repertoires and more consistently exhibited element strings than younger individuals. Larger repertoires were typically associated with incorporation of rare variants, some of which indicate flexibility and intelligence. These tool using apes aid us in understanding the evolution of technology, including that of our human ancestors, which showed a high degree of uniformity over large spatial scales.
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Affiliation(s)
- Crickette M Sanz
- Anthropology Department, Washington University, Saint Louis, MO, USA.
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Naguib M, Kunc HP, Sprau P, Roth T, Amrhein V. Communication Networks and Spatial Ecology in Nightingales. ADVANCES IN THE STUDY OF BEHAVIOR 2011. [DOI: 10.1016/b978-0-12-380896-7.00005-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
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