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Development of mound-building in Australian brush-turkeys (Alectura lathami) : the role of learning, testosterone and body mass

journal contribution
posted on 2006-05-11, 00:00 authored by A Goth, Lee AstheimerLee Astheimer
Australian brush-turkeys (Alectura lathami) hatch in incubation mounds of organic material and have no parental role models to learn from. When raised in outdoor aviaries, without adults, four of six males built incubation mounds at an early age of 4.5–9 months. The two males without mounds were the only ones without detectable levels of testosterone (T) at 4.5 months, whereas body mass did not explain the presence or absence of mound building. At the age of 11 months, all males had detectable T, including those without mounds. This study also investigated the development of social dominance in males kept in mixed-sex groups for 4.5 months. At this latter age, higher-ranked males tended to have higher T levels (P = 0.076), whereas dominance ranks at 4.5 months were not correlated with body mass or size, either at this age or at hatching. Overall, these results suggest that mound building develops without learning, and there is a relationship between T levels and dominance status as well as the absence or presence of mound building. These findings contribute to discussions on the role of learning in behavioural development and the role of T and body mass in avian life history.

History

Journal

Australian journal of zoology

Volume

54

Issue

2

Pagination

71 - 78

Publisher

CSIRO Publishing

Location

Collingwood, Vic.

ISSN

0004-959X

eISSN

1446-5698

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2006, CSIRO

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