In birds, vocal interactions are essential during reproduction. However, the majority of studies on vocalisation discrimination and mate preferences in birds are biased in favour of females. Indeed, few studies have focused on male perception and preferences for female vocalisations. Thus, this study aims to determine male preferences for a type of female vocalisation in the domestic canary, Serinus canaria. To do this, we tested sexually receptive males in an operant conditioning test. The males tested were given the opportunity to choose between two keys and pressing the keys triggered the broadcast of female-specific copulation solicitation trills (CST) with a different number of notes per second. This experiment did not reveal preferences that could be generalised to the group but individual preferences could be highlighted. Further studies will be needed to explain these results and to better understand male preference in monogamous species.

The domestic canary became one of the most used models during the 20th century to understand the physiological regulation of reproduction. This chapter introduces essential notions of hormonal control of reproduction, describes the breeding biology of the domestic canary under laboratory conditions and then reviews how studies with the canary have advanced knowledge in this area. Overall, a web of influences has been shown between the social environment, the production of sex hormones and their effects on the reproductive physiology and behaviour of the female canary. Effects of sex hormones at the brain level were shown to regulate reproductive behaviours, such as male singing and copulation solicitations by females. Studying the canary also allowed to discover that females deposit hormones in the eggs to influence chick development, and how different hormones regulate parent–offspring interactions, including parental provisioning and nestling begging.

During courtship, animals perform conspicuous and elaborate signals. In birds, courtship involved often mutual engagement by both partners but most research on courtship behaviours has focused on male signals despite of growing interest for female signals in recent years. Here, we show that female domestic canaries (Serinus canaria) have the ability to modulate their sexual response to male songs. To do so, we exposed females to two types of song (very attractive and moderately attractive songs) during two consecutive reproductive cycles. We measured both visual (copulation solicitation displays, CSD) and vocal signals (copulation solicitation trills, CST; contact calls, CC and simple trills, ST) emitted by the females during song broadcast. We observed that females could modify the characteristics of their signals (duration and the number of elements of CSD, duration, frequency and number of notes of calls) depending on song attractiveness and the number of times they were exposed to a male's song. We also found that some females always emitted more signals than others (i.e. stable inter-individual differences) regardless of the song attractiveness and across reproductive cycles. Further studies are necessary to check whether female signals constitute sexual ornaments and if they could stimulate male canaries during courtship.

Birds’ vocalizations commonly are categorized in two types: songs and calls. Yet, the study of avian vocalizations is male-biased and most of research to date has focused on male song. Even though female song is of growing interest in recent years, studies on female-specific calls or female-typical calls are scattered and various hypotheses have been suggested about their functions. We here review the main hypotheses regarding the functions of female-specific or female-typical calls in birds, outline the main predictions arising from these hypotheses, and describe descriptive and experimental studies supporting them. Most hypotheses to explain female call function are not mutually exclusive; a single call may serve multiple functions at a given time or at different stages of the reproductive cycle. No hypothesis alone seems like it can explain the diversity of the female calls across species. This diversity in function of female calls probably results from a diversity of evolutionary pressures, beyond that of sexual selection alone. Of particular interest for future work will be experimental approaches on the breeder-need hypothesis, the self-stimulation hypothesis, and the species/mother recognition hypothesis. Our understanding of the functions of female calls will also be aided by attention to mechanisms underlying their utterance, with attention to topics such as neuroendocrine mechanisms, ontogenetic processes, the redundancy of calls with other signals, and variation in calls between and within individuals.

Variation of female preferences is often reported in the literature and could be related to an artefact derived from multiple different methods used. Thus, there is a need to evaluate the influence of different methods when assessing female preferences. The present study aims to compare female preferences obtained from an operant conditioning test and from female vocal responses to male song in the domestic canary (Serinus canaria). In an operant conditioning test, females had the possibility to choose between two keys; a peck on one key elicited a supposed very attractive canary song while a peck on the other key elicited a less attractive song. Meanwhile, female vocal responses were recorded. Our results revealed that female canaries preferred to peck on the key eliciting the attractive song and that they emitted more copulation calls in response to the attractive song compared to the less attractive song. This study shows the congruence of these two methods and further suggests that they are reliable to study female preferences in laboratory conditions.

Personality traits and behavioural profiles are generally assumed to be stable in adulthood. Yet, it has been hypothesised that animals should cope with cyclical fluctuations by adjusting both single behaviours and suites of behaviour. Photoperiod is well known to induce hormonal and physiological changes, and these changes can in turn affect personality traits and behavioural profiles. This study is the first to explicitly investigate the influence of photoperiod on both behavioural profiles and personality traits. Six potential personality traits (within-flock activity, ability to escape, response to threat, isolation calling, boldness and neophobia) and dominance were measured four times in 96 domestic canaries Serinus canaria (48 males and 48 females): twice during a long photoperiod (Long Days) and 6months later twice during a short photoperiod (Short Days). Without regard to sex and photoperiod, most traits were highly repeatable, and bolder canaries were more dominant, less sensitive to an external threat and to isolation and less neophobic. In addition, the more active individuals within a flock were the more difficult to catch. Yet, both sex and photoperiod affected personality traits and behavioural profiles. Personality traits remained repeatable within each photoperiod though we observed behavioural plasticity and sex differences for response to threat, neophobia and within-flock activity. Concerning behavioural profiles, the negative relationship between boldness and neophobia remained homogenous in both sexes during Short Days as well as during Long Days. Then, the more active individuals within a flock were the more difficult to catch in Short Days but not in Long Days. Finally, the other correlations not only varied with photoperiod but also with sex. Our study highlights the importance of photoperiod and sex in the expression of personality traits and behavioural profiles, and of the need to measure them across the whole photoperiodic cycle.

Humans speak to dogs using a special speech register called Pet-Directed Speech (PDS) which is very similar to Infant-Directed Speech (IDS) used by parents when talking to young infants. These two type of speech share prosodic features that are distinct from the typical Adult-Directed Speech (ADS): a high pitched voice and an increased pitch variation. So far, only one study has investigated the effect of PDS on dogs' attention. We video recorded 44 adult pet dogs and 19 puppies when listening to the same phrase enounced either in ADS or in PDS or in IDS. The phrases were previously recorded and were broadcasted via a loudspeaker placed in front of the dog. The total gaze duration of the dogs toward the loudspeaker, was used as a proxy of attention. Results show that adult dogs are significantly more attentive to PDS than to ADS and that their attention significantly increases along with the rise of the fundamental frequency of human' speech. It is likely that the exaggerated prosody of PDS is used by owners as an ostensive cue for dogs that facilitates the effectiveness of their communication, and should represent an evolutionarily determined adaptation that benefits the regulation and maintenance of their relationships.

Most studies on sexual selection focus on male characteristics such as male song in songbirds. Yet female vocalizations in songbirds are growing in interest among behavioural and evolutionary biologists because these vocalizations can reveal the female's preferences for male traits and may affect male display. This study was designed to test whether male song performance influences the different female signals in the domestic canary (Serinus canaria). Female canaries were exposed to three types of song performance, differing in the repetition rate of sexy syllables. This experiment demonstrates that female birds are engaged in multimodal communication during sexual interaction. The results support the copulation solicitation hypothesis for female-specific trills: these trills were positively correlated and had a similar pattern to the copulation solicitation displays; responses were higher to the songs with higher performance and responses decreased with the repetition of the stimulation. Also, we observed a sensitization effect with the repetition of the song of the highest performance for the simple calls. Simple trills and other calls were more frequent during the broadcast of canary songs compared with the heterospecific control songs. The differential use of female signals in response to different song performance reveals a highly differentiated female signalling system which is discussed in light of the role of female traits to understand sexual selection in a broader perspective.

Moral agents are individuals who act in the moral sphere in such a way that they can be held morally responsible for their actions. Where different animals fit into the moral sphere may depend on their psychological properties. Objections to animals fitting somewhere in the moral sphere are typically based on their lack of some cognitive requirement, they aren't smart enough to have morality, or they only have simple emotions but lack the moral emotions. The issue then becomes the sort of capacity required to make the moral-looking behavior into truly moral behavior. As people learn more about animals, their lives free from human encroachment, their cognitive capacities, their emotions and their needs, the calibration method will be useful in order to help decide the place of animals in the moral sphere. The outcomes of such decisions depend greatly on the work of philosophers and psychologists who study moral …

Kevin Richard Abbott, Thomas Carlton Adam, Bart Adriaenssens, Christian Agrillo, Tomonari Akamatsu, Ça glar Akçay, Erol Akçay, Tatsuya Amano, Mirjam Amcoff, Luisa Amo, Maria Clara P. Amorim, William Amos, Mathieu Amy, Christopher V. Anderson, J. R. Anderson, Sylvia Anton, Coren Lee Apicella, Hiroyuki Arakawa, Marcelo Araya-Salas, Sarah E. J. Arnold, Gareth Arnott, Kate Ashbrook, Jelle Atema, Jacqueline K. Augustine, Filippo Aureli, Michel Baguette, Emily Jean Baird, Rohini Balakrishnan, Barbara Ballentine, Emilio Barba, Colleen A. Barber, Jesse Barber, Miguel Barbosa, Matthew Allen Barbour, Kim A. Bard, Isabel Barja, Craig Barnett, Franklin Barnwell, Louise Barrett, Douglas Barron, Katherine L. Barry, Ludek Bartos, Farrah Bashey, Alexandra L. Basolo, Elizabeth Bastiaans, Lucy Anne Bates, Melissa Bateson, Emmanuelle Baudry, Matthew T. Bealor, Guy Beauchamp, Elizabeth A. Becker, Gabriel J. L. Beckers, Peter A. Bednekoff, Jacinta Catherine Beehner, Spencer Behmer, Alison Bell, Matthew Bell, Merav Ben-David, Lauryn Benedict, Giovanni Benelli, Sarah Benhaiem, Fred B. Bercovitch, Daniel A. Bergman, Thore Bergman, Ralph Bergmüller, Kathleen Beyer, Robert Biegler, Allert Bijleveld, Verner P. Bingman, Andrew K Birnie, Angelo Bisazza, Jeff Black, Aaron Blaisdell, Pierrick Blanchard, Bronwyn Heather Bleakley, Arjan Blokland, Nikolai Bode, Loic Bollache, Richard Bon, Francesco Bonadonna, Alan B. Bond, Ronald Bonnett, David Bonter, Neeltje J. Boogert, Luca Borger, Christophe Bousquet, Karolina Brandlova, Michael D. Breed, Samantha Bremner-Harrison, Elodie Floriane Briefer, Mark Briffa, R. Mark Brigham, Ben Brilot, Jim Briskie, A. Brodin, Tomas Brodin, Mark Broom, Sarah Frances Brosnan, George D. Broufas, Charles R. Brown, Grant E. Brown,William D. Brown, Henrik Brumm, Eleanor Brush, R. Bshary, Katherine Buchanan, Sergey Budaev, Christina D. Buesching, Aurelie Buffin, Thomas Bugnyar, Joseph Bump, Melissa BurnsCusato, Theresa M. Burt de Perera, John A. Byers, John Byers, Francesca Cagnacci, Nancy G. Caine, Kristina Cammen, Carlos Camp, Daniel Campos, David Canal, U. Candolin, Hernán Alberto Cañon Jones, Michael A. Cant, Mauricio Cantor, John P. Capitanio, Pau Carazo, Gonçalo Cardoso, C. Carere, Michèle Carlier, Pascal Carlier, Justin M. Carre, Alecia J. Carter, Michael Casey, Francisco Ceacero, Vanina Chalcoff, JasonW. Chapman, Taylor Chapple, Gloriana Chaverri, Lucy Gaia Cheke, Dorothy L. Cheney, Siu Gin Cheung, Douglas Patrick Chivers, J. H. Christy, Nicolas Claidière, Rulon Clark, Dale L. Clayton, Kenneth E. Clifton, Fiona Clissold, Tim H. Clutton-Brock, John F. Cockrem, Gabriel Colbeck, Ross Antony Coleman, Richard C. Connor, S. J. Cooke, Idelle Cooper, Carlos Cordero, Marina Cords, Ana Maria Costa-Leonardo, P. A. Cotton, Gérard Coureaud, Rita Covas, Catherine P. Cramer, Jeremy Chase Crawford, RobinMichael Crewe, Ondi Crino, Catherine Crockford, Darren Paul Croft, William-Georges Crosmary, Paul Cryan, Molly Elizabeth Cummings, Elena Cunningham, Bruce S. Cushing, I. C. Cuthill, Roslyn Dakin, James Dale, Sarah Dalesman, Kevin Daly, Melanie Dammhahn, Peter Daniel, Morgan David, Nico de Bruyn, María DeMársico, Amy Elizabeth Deacon, Nina Deisig, Javier delBarco-Trillo, Johann Delcourt, Elisa Demuru, Bertrand L. Deputte, Charles Derby, Sebastien Deregnaucourt, Elizabeth Derryberry, Patrizia D’Ettorre, Lynn D. Devenport, Cédric Devigne, Andre A. Dhondt, Samuel Luis Diaz-Munoz, Janis L. Dickinson, Lise Diez, Heidi E. M. Dobson, Seth D. Dobson, Ned Dochtermann, Miguel dos Santos, Claudie Doums, Cynthia Downs, Amélie N. Dreiss, Ana Duarte, Lee Alan Dugatkin, Reuven Dukas, Jenny C. Dunn, Peter O. Dunn, Audrey Dussutour, Emily Halsey DuVal, Madeline Eacott, Martin Edvardsson, Dominic Alexander Edward, Damian Octavio Elias, Jesse Mathias Swanson Ellis, Nathan Jon Emery, Hans W. Erhard, Eyal Ert, Alice Exnerová, Damien Roger Farine, Gesa Feenders, William Edgar Feeney, M. Brock Fenton, Esteban Fernández-Juricic, Ramon Ferrer i Cancho, Daniel Fessler, Marco Festa-Bianchet, Lisa Filippi, Julia Fischer, Patrick Fitze, Lauren Patricia Fitzsimmons, Tom Flower, Steffen Foerster, Sean Fogarty, Susanne Foitzik, Joseph J. Fontaine, Scott Forbes, Gillian S. Forrester, W. Forstmeier, Kasey Fowler-Finn, Rebecca Fox, Dorothy Fragaszy, Michael Fraker, Clinton D. Francis, Tamara Frank, Daniel W. Franks, Orlaith N. Fraser, ToddM. Freeberg, Joachim G. Frommen, Ines Fuertbauer, Leonida Fusani, Anna Gagliardo, Jean-Michel Gaillard, Bennett G. Galef, Jr, Dave Gammon, StevenW. Gangestad, Jessica Garb, Colin Garroway, Mary Garvin, Sidney A. Gauthreaux, Jacques Gautrais, E. Geffen, Emilie Genty, Nicole M. Gerlach, Joshua Gibson, James D. J. Gilbert, Richard Gill, Jean-Guy Godin, Shira D. Gordon, Root Gorelick, Marlene Goubault, Hanna Granroth-Wilding, James W. A. Grant, David A. Gray, Stephanie Green, Michael D. Greenfield, Anna Greenwood, Michael Griesser, S. W. Griffiths, Matteo Griggio, Tomas Grim, Christoph Grueter, A. S. Grutter, Palestina Guevara-Fiore, Lauren Guillette, James C. Ha, Adrian Hailey, Wouter Halfwerk, Michelle L. Hall, T. Hance, Shala Hankison, Frank E. Hanson, Tomohiro Harano, Ian C. W. Hardy, Benjamin L. Hart, Paul J. B. Hart, Michael Haselhuhn, Marie Haskell, Ben J. Hatchwell, Mark E. Hauber, Dana M. Hawley, Matt Hayward, Brian A. Hazlett, Ann V. Hedrick, Berthold Hedwig, Gergely Hegyi, S. Held, C. K. Hemelrijk, Natalie Hempel de Ibarra, Carol Henger, Jens Herberholz, Marie Herberstein, James Herbert-Read, Alexandra Marcela Hernandez, Anthony Herrel, Emilio Herrera, Diana K. Hews, Andrew David Higginson, James P. Higham, Dee Higley, Geoffrey E. Hill, Russell A. Hill, Hiroyuki Hirayama, Ben T. Hirsch, Elizabeth A. Hobson, Keith Hobson, Thomas S. Hoffmeister, Erik Höglund, Kim L. Hoke, C. Tate Holbrook, Øistein Haugsten Holen, Marie-Jeanne Holveck, Lydia Hopper, Andrew G. Horn, Katherine Albro Houpt, David Hu, Robert Hubrecht, Elise Huchard, Sarah C. Humfeld, Jerry Husak, Belen Ibañez, Kate Elizabeth Ihle, Carrie Ijichi, Simone Immler, Vera Lucia Imperatriz-Fonseca, Brian Inouye, Patricia Izar, Piotr G. Jablonski, Alain Jacot, Charles Janson, Dómhnall John Jennings, Keith Jensen, Stephanie Jesseau, Brian Johnson, Robert A. Johnson, Adam G. Jones, Katherine Ann Jones, Therésa M. Jones, Thomas C. Jones, Peter Gregory Judge, Tatsuya Kameda, Jason Kamilar, Peter M. Kappeler, Apostolos Kapranas, Kenji Karino, Kristina Karlsson Green, Paul Kaseloo, Michael Matthew Kasumovic, Lee Kats, Martin

In animals, individual differences in learning ability are common and are in part explained by genetic differences, developmental conditions and by general experience. Yet, not all variations in learning are well understood. Individual differences in learning may be associated with elementary individual characteristics that are consistent across situations and over time, commonly referred to as personality or temperament. Here, we tested whether or not male great tits (Parus major) from two selection lines for fast or slow exploratory behaviour, an operational measure for avian personality, vary in their learning performance in two related consecutive tasks. In the first task, birds had to associate a colour with a reward whereas in the second task, they had to associate a new colour with a reward ignoring the previously rewarded colour. Slow explorers had shorter latencies to approach the experimental device compared with fast explorers in both tasks, but birds from the two selection lines did not differ in accomplishing the first task, that is, to associate a colour with a reward. However, in the second task, fast explorers had longer latencies to solve the trials than slow explorers. Moreover, relative to the number of trials needed to reach the learning criteria in the first task, birds from the slow selection line took more trials to associate a new colour with a reward while ignoring the previously learned association compared with birds from the fast selection line. Overall, the experiments suggest that personality in great tits is not strongly related to learning per se in such an association task, but that birds from different selection lines might express different learning strategies as birds from the different selection lines were differently affected by their previous learning performance.