'Team of rivals' approach works for sparrows defending territories
Tuesday, February 25, 2014 - 19:30
in Biology & Nature
A new study of territorial songs used by chipping sparrows to defend their turf reveals that males sometimes will form a "dear enemy" alliance with a weaker neighbor to prevent a stronger rival from moving in. University of Massachusetts Amherst graduate student Sarah Goodwin and her advisor, behavioral ecologist Professor Jeffrey Podos, report their findings in the current issue of Biology Letters.