I gave the lecture today in my Ornithology class, on social behavior in birds. As I was preparing for the lecture, I found out something very interesting regarding social status and dominant behavior within species. Plumage has a lot to do with it. For example: the male Harris's Sparrow has black markings under it's chin and onto it's chest. Males with more defined black markings are dominant, and males with spotty markings are subordinate. And they fit into a pecking order with several levels based upon this. Dominant birds get first dibs on space, mates, and food. Subordinate individuals yield to the dominant ones, and everyone lives in peace. Now for the interesting story. There was a study done, where some subordinate Harris's Sparrows were taken, and their feathers under the chin and on the chest were dyed black so that they resembled a dominant individual. This is what happened to them: the actual dominant individuals started attacking them, because they represented a threat to their status. Instead of fighting back, which would have allowed these subordinate birds (who looked dominant) to climb in rank and actually become more dominant, they backed off becuase they don't have aggressive tendancies like dominant birds do. So it pretty much just confused them. "I've always been so good at yielding to the dominant birds. Why are they attacking me? Leave me alone!" I thought it was kind of a funny story.
This one, for example, looks like it would be one of the more dominant individuals. Look at all that black! Man!
This one is a little scanty. He'd be more subordinate. Sorry, dude.
No comments:
Post a Comment