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Development of mound-building in Australian brush-turkeys (Alectura lathami) : the role of learning, testosterone and body mass
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 zoologyVolume
54Issue
2Pagination
71 - 78Publisher
CSIRO PublishingLocation
Collingwood, Vic.Publisher DOI
ISSN
0004-959XeISSN
1446-5698Language
engPublication classification
C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journalCopyright notice
2006, CSIROUsage metrics
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