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Competition and hybridization drive interspecific territoriality in birds

Drury, J.P.; Cowen, M.C.; Grether, G.F.

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Authors

M.C. Cowen

G.F. Grether



Abstract

Historically, aggressive territorial interactions between members of different species have been dismissed as relatively rare occurrences and unimportant selective forces. We conducted the largest-ever comparative study of interspecific territorial behavior, amassing a dataset of all published observations of territorial aggression between species of North American perching birds. We found that interspecific territoriality is common, with individuals from nearly a third of all species defending territories against one or more other species. Contrary to the prevailing view, we also found abundant support for the hypothesis that interspecific territoriality is an adaptive response to resource competition and reproductive interference, not just a rare occurrence restricted to recently diverged lineages, and that interspecific territoriality constrains the evolutionary divergence of territorial signals.

Citation

Drury, J., Cowen, M., & Grether, G. (2020). Competition and hybridization drive interspecific territoriality in birds. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(23), 12923-12930. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1921380117

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Apr 3, 2020
Online Publication Date May 26, 2020
Publication Date Jun 1, 2020
Deposit Date Apr 6, 2020
Publicly Available Date Nov 26, 2020
Journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Print ISSN 0027-8424
Electronic ISSN 1091-6490
Publisher National Academy of Sciences
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 117
Issue 23
Pages 12923-12930
DOI https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1921380117

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