Abstract

In common with human speech, song is culturally inherited in oscine passerine birds (songbirds'). Intraspecific divergence in birdsong, such as development of local dialects, might be an important early step in the speciation process. It is therefore vital to understand how songs diverge, especially in founding populations. The northward expansion of the Light-vented Bulbul Pycnonotus sinensis (J. F. Gmelin, 1789) into north China in the last 30years provides an excellent opportunity to study birdsong evolution. We compared similar to 4400 songs from newly established northern populations with similar to 2900 songs from southern populations to evaluate song divergence after recent expansion. The total pool of syllables and especially song types was considerably smaller in the north than in the south, indicating founder effects' in the new population. The ancestral pattern of mosaic song dialects changed into a pattern of wide geographical sharing of a few song types and syllables, likely the result of fewer geographical barriers to meme flow', and the recent spread across a large area in the north. Our results suggest that song evolution and vocal trait shifts can arise rapidly after range expansion, and that in the Light-vented Bulbul founder effects', geographical isolation, and recent rapid expansions played important roles in the evolution of song dialects.

Keywords

cultural evolution; founder effect; geographical isolation; newly established populations; song dialect

Published in

Journal of Evolutionary Biology
2013, Volume: 26, number: 4, pages: 867-877
Publisher: WILEY-BLACKWELL

SLU Authors

• Alström, Per

  • SLU Swedish Species Information Centre, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Evolutionary Biology
Zoology
Behavioral Sciences Biology


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/jeb.12101

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/43384