Noise disrupts monogamous pairs in birds
| September 1, 2007Professor Michael Blakey’s work as lead scientist at the New York African Burial Ground led to the designation of the site as a national monument. A memorial at the site was dedicated Oct. 5.
The ceremony, sponsored by the National Park Service and the Schomburg Center of the New York Public Library, included a concert and a candlelight procession to honor the Africans who helped build the city of New York. The African Burial Ground National Monument is the first National Monument dedicated to Africans of early New York and Americans of African descent.
Blakey, National Endowment for the Humanities Professor at the College of William and Mary, first became informed about the 6.6 acre African burial site in October 1991 when the New York Times reported that 12 bodies had been uncovered by a team of construction workers making way for a federal office building. Eventually, more than 400 human skeletal remains were uncovered.
During his 10 years of work at the burial ground, Blakey coordinated research of the site and its remains among teams of physical archaeologists, historians, anthropologists and others. The archaeological and historical contexts of the remains were analyzed by Howard University research teams and the Institute for Historical Biology at William and Mary.
In 2003, the remains found at the site were reburied in Manhattan following ceremonies in five East Coast cities.
Over the last few years, a comparative database on the bioarchaeology of the African Diaspora was developed at the Institute for Historical Biology at William and Mary, which Blakey directs. Next year, the Interpretive Center at the Monument will open, and its content will be largely derived from the research that Blakey directed.
Loud levels of white noise have been shown to disrupt monogamous bonds between zebra finches. In a series of on-going experiments, William and Mary biologists are testing the connection between environmental noise and bird behavior.
In their natural setting, zebra finches form strong, monogamous pair bonds, making all the behavior related to mating generally predictable. Bird song, territory squabbles, dances and most male-female interaction are all mating behaviors.
John Swaddle, associate professor of biology, worked with student Laura Page on this experiment, and the two recently published the paper in the July ScienceDirect journal. In their paper, Swaddle and Page show a connection between environmental noise levels and mating behavior. The louder the white noise, the less preference the females show for their pair-bonded males, contrary to normal zebra finch behavior, Swaddle said.
“At the highest level of environmental noise that we had, the female spent just as much time with an unknown male as she did with her pair-bonded male,” said Swaddle. “We think that the soft, whispery type of calls they make at each other to maintain their pair bond is masked by the environmental noise.”
A number of other studies have found that environmental noise levels do affect bird song and bird behavior, but the William and Mary research is the first to study the direct implications of that change. Mating behavior and its disruptions can greatly influence a species, with evolutionary consequences, although the topic does require more research, Swaddle said.
