Behavioral and Evolutionary understanding of eye conspicuousness in birds

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K06809
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 45040:Ecology and environment-related
• Research Institution: Hokkaido University
• Principal Investigator: Soma Masayo 北海道大学, 理学研究院, 教授 (00578875)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 鳥類 / つがい / 顔 / 目 / 性淘汰 / 進化 / 視覚 / 動物行動

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Birds show a stunning diversity in their appearance, which include plumage coloration, ornamental feathers, and bare skin characteristics. While avian plumage is well studied in sexual selection studies, bare skin parts and their roles in facial conspicuousness tended to be overlooked in the past research. In this project, we tried to understand the signaling functions and evolution of eye/face conspicuousness of birds relying on behavioral experiments and interspecific comparative approaches.

Free Research Field

動物行動学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究の成果のうち，もっとも顕著な発見は，ブンチョウのeye ring（目の周りのリング上の皮膚）が，つがい形成後に信号形質と役割を果たしている点である．一般に，鳥類の派手さは配偶者選択との関連で進化したとされてきたが，eye ringは配偶者を獲得した後に機能を果たしているという点で，新規な知見といえる．また，eye ringは血色依存の赤みをおびているが，このような血色由来の色彩が，個体間コミュニケーションにおいてどのように機能をはたしているかは，ヒトを含む動物の社会性と信号進化を考える上でも重要である．