Daily patterns of courtship and mating behavior in the male Japanese quail

M A Ottinger; W M Schleidt; E Russek

doi:10.1016/0376-6357(82)90037-7

Daily patterns of courtship and mating behavior in the male Japanese quail

Behav Processes. 1982 Sep;7(3):223-33. doi: 10.1016/0376-6357(82)90037-7.

Authors

M A Ottinger¹, W M Schleidt², E Russek³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Poultry Science, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20742, U.S.A.
² Department of Zoology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, U.S.A.
³ Department of Dairy Science, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, U.S.A.

PMID: 24923182
DOI: 10.1016/0376-6357(82)90037-7

Abstract

Crowing behavior was monitored constantly in male Japanese quail housed singly over 30 successive days. The photoperiod was 16h of light and 8 h of dark. A daily pattern in crowing was observed in which the frequencies were elevated in the afternoon and at the beginning of darkness. However, peak crowing occured 2 h prior to the onset of light. These rhythms were highly correlated among individuals and extremely repeatable over the sequential days of observation. In a second experiment, males which were paired with females were observed for frequencies of crowing, courtship, and mating behavior during the lighted portion of the day. In this experiment, the same photoperiod (16L:8D) was maintained. Paired males exhibited a daily pattern in crowing similar to that observed in the singly housed males. The frequency of mating was the highest between 1200 and 1300 h and lowest at 1400 h. Mating success was highest at midday, as were the number of males exhibiting mating behavior. These diurnal patterns in sexual behavior may depend on environmental cues such as photoperiod, which, in turn, may stimulate endocrine triggers.