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Sexual imprinting is an early learning process, during which young animals acquire characteristics of their future mate. Two main phases of sexual imprinting have been identified
and are currently intensely investigated by our laboratory.
The present project aims to deal with the behavioural aspects of the phenomenon of sexual imprinting. The decision of a
zebra finch male to court a female depends on the early acquired preference for females of the parent species (zebra finches, Bengalese finches) and also on actual cues of the
stimulus configuration of the female. Mute females or female dummies, for example, elicit courtship less effective than females which are uttering contact calls.
Our project will
consist of two phases. The first one will use video techniques to record the behaviour of female zebra finches during courtship. We can then use the earlier recorded video material to
present it to zebra finch males while recording their reactions. The main idea of this first step is to find out which signals from the female are important for triggering the male courtship
behaviour. The second step is to use a computer-modeling technique to create a complete computer database of a "virtual zebra finch" which we can use to validate the previously
isolated courtship signal components. These experiments help us to understand the features which determines the attractivity of zebra finch partners.
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