Abstract：
The ability of individual animals to defend a territory as well as various phenotypic and behavioral traits may be targets of sexual selection used by males to evaluate their competitors or by females to choose males. A frequent question in animal behavior is whether male traits and characteristics of their territory are correlated and what are the mechanisms that may mediate such associations when they exist. Because hormones link phenotype to behavior, by studying the role of testosterone in territoriality one may come closer to understanding the mechanisms mediating correlations or lack thereof between characteristics of territories and of males. We evaluated whether variation in characteristics of territories (size and quality) are correlated with variation in morphology, coloration, testosterone, heterozygosity, and calls in two species of poison frogs. The Amazonian frog Allobates aff. trilineatus exhibits male care and defends territories only during the breeding season, while the endangered frog Oophaga lehmanni displays maternal care and defends territories throughout the year. We found that morphological traits (body length, weight, thigh size), call activity, and testosterone levels correlated with size and various indicators of quality of the territory. However, the direction of these correlations (whether positive or negative) and which specific morphological, acoustic traits or testosterone level variables covaried depended on the species. Our findings highlight an endocrine pathway as part of the physiological machinery that may underlie the interplay between male traits and territorial behavior. We were able to identify some male traits related to territory attributes, but whether females choose males based on these traits requires further research.
摘要：
个体动物保卫领土的能力以及各种表型和行为特征可能是雄性用来评估其竞争对手或雌性用来选择雄性的性选择的目标。动物行为中一个常见的问题是男性特征和其领土特征是否相关，以及当它们存在时可能介导这种关联的机制是什么。因为激素将表型与行为联系起来，通过研究睾酮在地域性中的作用，人们可能更接近于理解地域性和男性特征之间的相关性或缺乏相关性的机制。我们评估了区域特征（大小和质量）的变化是否与形态变化相关，着色,睾丸激素，杂合性，召唤两种毒青蛙。亚马逊青蛙藻类。trilineatus仅在繁殖季节表现出男性护理和保卫领土，而濒临灭绝的青蛙Oophagalehmanni全年展示产妇护理和保卫领土。我们发现形态特征(体长，体重,大腿尺寸),呼叫活动,睾酮水平与领土面积和各种质量指标相关。然而,这些相关性的方向(无论是正的还是负的)以及哪种特定的形态学，声学性状或睾酮水平变量取决于物种。我们的发现强调了内分泌途径，这是生理机制的一部分，可能是男性特征与领土行为之间相互作用的基础。我们能够识别出一些与领土属性相关的男性特征，但是女性是否根据这些特征选择男性需要进一步的研究。
