Female zebra finches prefer symmetrically banded males, but only during interactive mate choice tests

We used a four-arm choice chamber to investigate whether the symmetry of ar tificial traits (leg bands) influenced how attractive male zebra finches, T aeniopygia guttata, were to females, and whether a female's preference was influenced by the opportunity to interact with males during choice tests. F emales (N=10) were tested separately and moved freely between the chamber's arms, each of which contained a male wearing bands (two per leg) in symmet ric, asymmetric or cross-asymmetric configurations. In three of the six tes ts experienced by each female, one-way glass (mounted diagonally within eac h arm) prevented males from seeing the female or their own reflection. Duri ng the other three tests, transparent glass was used, so males could see an d react to the female. A male's band combination had a significant influenc e on the amount of time that females spent with him, but only during transp arent-glass tests, where symmetric males were preferred. The results of our transparent-glass tests were similar to those reported by Swaddle & Cuthil l (1994, Nature, 367, 165-166), in a study where females selected between m ales that were interacting with their own mirror images (reflected by one-w ay glass). We discuss why females display the same apparent preference when tested with males engaged in intra- (Swaddle & Cuthill's study) versus int ersexual activities (our study). Since females in our study displayed a pre ference only when males could interact with them, caution may be required w hen extrapolating the results of static choice tests (e.g. involving models , one-way glass or video images) to situations where the participants can i nteract. (C) 1999 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.