SORRY, HONEY, I DIDN'T HEAR YOU...:

Male Songbird Responds to Mate Only When He's the Third Wheel (Scientific American, 7/22/04)

Like a stereotypical husband who pretends not to hear his wife berating him, some male songbirds show no signs of recognizing the call of their long-term mate in laboratory settings. But recent work with these animals finds that they can, in fact, differentiate their mate's voice but will react to it only in certain social situations.

Zebra finches are monogamous songbirds from Australia that fly in large flocks. As a result, couples routinely lose visual contact of each other and use calls to keep in touch. Whereas the female zebra finch clearly responds to the sound of her partner, the reciprocal behavior had not been observed in the male.

Must they reveal all our secrets?

Posted by Orrin Judd at July 27, 2004 4:04 PM