A DAWN cacophony is a cockerel鈥檚 attempt to safeguard its unborn offspring. Sex, it seems, makes chickens noisier and more likely to raise the alarm if there is a potential threat.
Behavioural ecologists were not sure whether males squawk mainly to attract mates, impressing hens by putting themselves in a situation where predators might notice them, or whether they screech after the event to protect any future offspring.
David Wilson from Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, and his team kept 30 cocks and hens separate for five weeks and then paired them up in individual enclosures for two weeks. The males鈥� screeches were recorded for 2 hours a day at sunrise 鈥� when predators are most active 鈥� a week before mating, during the time the pair were together and for a week after.
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The frequency of alarm calls went up by 30 per cent when the cocks were allowed to mate (Animal Behaviour, ). In the week after mating, the cocks still squawked 20 per cent more than before mating occurred. This supports the idea the cocks are willing to put themselves in danger to protect their 鈥渋nvestment鈥� or future offspring.
Tommasso Pizzari at the University of Oxford calls the results interesting but says the domesticated breed used means it is difficult to extrapolate the findings to other birds.
