It takes two to tango: female role in guinea pig courtship displays

• Grant number: 21/13186-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: November 01, 2022
• Status: Discontinued
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Experimental Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Patrícia Ferreira Monticelli
• Grantee: Paula Verzola Olivio
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (FFCLRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 23/13004-6 - Sensory Perception and Social Behavior, BE.EP.PD

Abstract

Courtship is a communicative process, where the males can signal their qualities, and the females evaluate them and choose mates. During this dynamic interaction, the males may adjust their signals accordingly to female responses. Guinea pig (Cavia porcellus) courtship display is composed of three different sensorial modalities (visual/motor, acoustic, and chemical). The male initiates courtship exhibiting contact behaviors and trying to mount the female. She moves away, and the male chases her. Then, the female may utter the distress calls. When the female stops to move, the male exhibits the rumba (rhythmically hind quarters movement) and utters the courtship call (purr). Previously studies indicated that the courtship call is variable between individuals. However, it is still unknown how courtship display influences female responses and mate choice. We aim to investigate the female responses to male courtship display and analyze whether the males adjust their displays responding to female behavior. We propose two studies to investigate our questions, including isolated cues experiments with male courtship signals, to register female behavioral responses (vocal, non-vocal, and emotions) and male-female pairings, to investigate the interaction between individuals. We hypothesize that male persistence is a crucial courtship element, and, therefore, females will not respond to courtship signals in male absence. We also consider that males adjust their display accordingly to female responses, which will be evidenced by changes in behavior frequency throughout the interaction.