Happy Monday (seems like an oxymoron, doesn't it?)! Did you know that there is a international race circuit for homing pigeons? Even more surprising, did you know the homing pigeon racing world is currently facing a doping scandal?
Its true!
Several participants tested positive for pain killers and cocaine (sounds like a bad 21 Jumpstreet episode). Although it seems comical, the ardent hobbyists take pigeon racing very seriously. Recently, Bolt, the racing pigeon, was sold to a Chinese business man for $430,000.
Maybe I should think about raising pigeons....
An interesting scandal.
ReplyDeleteWhile reading the articles, I found the idea of a CPG generating sexual calls very interesting, in the light that these appear to be tightly regulated and coordinate specific call responses and vocalizations (dare I say, "reproducible" responses...). My first impression is that this approach seems to evolutionary contrast with the human approach. The former seems to help ensure reproductive success for the species by making mates easily locatable and the calls seem to provide enough information to determine if the opposite member is "male enough" or "female enough", whereas non-stereotyped vocalizations may introduce more variability and provide a clue for the opposite member to help in determining the "fitness" level of your partner and make reproduction more selective.
In this regard, I would be curious to see how the females and males of these model organisms respond after a partner has been attracted (that is, do they decide to reproduce 100% of the time or is there a selection process), and I am also curious if in the organisms where the call also induces phonotaxis, if hearing the appropriate response call triggers additional sexual physiologic foreplay to prep the animal to mate. To me, I see phonotactic acuity as a high-demand investment evolutionarily that may come at the cost of other sexual attraction mechanisms so it would be interesting to see just how far these cues go to determine mating behavior.