La nueva ley de instituciones bancarias, financieras y de seguros: algunos comentarios

This research was funded by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada discovery grants to LL and L-AG. NJB was financially supported by a Dr. Richard H. Tomlinson Fellowship and a Dr. Milton Leong Fellowship from McGill University. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Background: Successful foraging is essential for survival and reproductive success. In many bird species, foraging is a learned behaviour. To cope with environmental change and survive periods in which regular foods are scarce, the ability to solve novel foraging problems by learning new foraging techniques can be crucial. Although females have been shown to prefer more efficient foragers, the effect of males' foraging techniques on female mate choice has never been studied. We tested whether females would prefer males showing the same learned foraging technique as they had been exposed to as juveniles, or whether females would prefer males that showed a complementary foraging technique. Methodology/Principal Findings: We first trained juvenile male and female zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) to obtain a significant proportion of their food by one of two foraging techniques. We then tested whether females showed a preference for males with the same or the alternative technique. We found that neither a male's foraging technique nor his foraging performance affected the time females spent in his proximity in the mate-choice apparatus. We then released flocks of these finches into an aviary to investigate whether assortative pairing would be facilitated by birds taught the same technique exploiting the same habitat. Zebra finches trained as juveniles in a specific foraging technique maintained their foraging specialisation in the aviary as adults. However, pair formation and nest location were random with regard to foraging technique. Conclusions/Significance: Our findings show that zebra finches can be successfully trained to be foraging specialists. However, the robust negative results of the conditions tested here suggest that learned foraging specializations do not affect mate choice or pair formation in our experimental context.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Total number of seeds mates scrounged from each other in assortative pairs (mean ± SE, <i>N</i> = 10, white bar) and disassortative pairs (<i>N</i> = 11, black bar).

<p>Total number of seeds mates scrounged from each other in assortative pairs (mean ± SE, <i>N</i> = 10, white bar) and disassortative pairs (<i>N</i> = 11, black bar).</p

Repeatabilities (<i>r</i>) of male task performance.

<p>Significant results are given in bold.</p

Timeline of the different test phases.

<p>Capitals refer to the test phases as described in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0014340#pone-0014340-t001" target="_blank">Table 1</a>. “T” indicates continued training on the foraging tasks. Subscripts indicate the test trial numbers for the Control, No-Interaction and Interaction test phases.</p

Repeatabilities (<i>r</i>) of female preferences for stalk male's compartment.

<p>Repeatabilities (<i>r</i>) of female preferences for stalk male's compartment.</p

Mean proportion of time (± SE) that females trained on the lid task (<i>N</i> = 16, dark grey bars) and females trained on the stalk task (<i>N</i> = 15, light grey bars) spent facing the stalk male's compartment in each of the four (A) No-Interaction and (B) Interaction test trials.

<p>Chance proportion, indicating random choice, is 0.5.</p

Description of the different test phases.

<p>Description of the different test phases.</p

The thick black bars indicate perches, the brown cylindrical objects are nest baskets, the small blue rectangles are nest-material dispensers and the small grey circular objects are water bottles.

<p>The left side of the aviary contained the stalk habitat and the right side the lid habitat. The four white rectangles with foraging task symbols represent the foraging patches. The two patches in the middle contained 16 stalk or 16 lid tasks each, whereas the patches next to the nest boxes contained 34 stalk or 34 lid tasks each. The aviary was 2.3 m high. Foraging patches were placed on tables 90 cm above the aviary floor to facilitate the recording of all foraging occurrences and social interactions. Nest baskets, nest material dispensers and water bottles were positioned 50 cm above the tables with foraging patches.</p