Seasonal changes in courtship behavior, testicular development and in hypothalamic aromatase immunoreactivity in male free-living European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris)
-
1
Institute of Experimental Medicine of the Hungarian Acadamy of Sciences, Department of Behavioural Neurobiology, Hungary
-
2
Szent István University, Laboratory of Reproductive Biology, Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Hungary
Male European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) sing prior to copulation and together with wing-waving these behaviors play essential role in mate atraction. In birds the activity of testis - as a primary source of androgens production-gradually increases during the breeding season (spring). The aromatization of testosterone - the most important androgen - in brain plays an important role in regulating the behavior. Our goal was to determine wheather the seasonal changes in male courtship behavior (measured by song bout length and wing-waving) are related to seasonal changes in androgen activity (measured by testis volume and aromatase (ARO) activity in the preoptic area (POA)) of free-living male starlings. Song bout length was recorded with a presence of a female and a nesthole. The number of ARO cells - together with the testis volume - increased during the courtship and egg laying period but outside the breeding season (August) they were on minimum. Song bout length showed simmilar pattern, namely the peak was reached during the courtship and egg laying period and after that males stoped their singing, when chicks started to hatch. A second elevation of song bout length was observed during fledging of youngs. The short and fast wing-flicking behavior was observed in males which were singing in the near of the nestholes but the typical wing-waving display occured almost exclusively after introduction of a female. This behavior did not show seasonal changes. Summarizing, we found that song bout length of free-living male starlings went parallel with testicular growth and ARO activity in the brain, except at the hatching time, which suggest that although androgens are essential for inducing male sexual arousal, but they are not exclusive regulators of courtship behavior.
Keywords:
comparative endocrinology
Conference:
25th Conference of the European Comparative Endocrinologists, Pécs, Hungary, 31 Aug - 4 Sep, 2010.
Presentation Type:
Conference Presentation
Topic:
Comparative endocrinology
Citation:
Pintér
O,
Péczely
P and
Zelena
D
(2010). Seasonal changes in courtship behavior, testicular development and in hypothalamic aromatase immunoreactivity in male free-living European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris).
Front. Endocrinol.
Conference Abstract:
25th Conference of the European Comparative Endocrinologists.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fendo.2010.01.00042
Copyright:
The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers.
They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters.
The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated.
Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed.
For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions.
Received:
26 Aug 2010;
Published Online:
29 Aug 2010.
*
Correspondence:
Mr. Ottó Pintér, Institute of Experimental Medicine of the Hungarian Acadamy of Sciences, Department of Behavioural Neurobiology, Budapest, Hungary, pinter.otto@koki.hu