'Culture' in quail: social influences on mate choices of female Coturnix japonica

We have shown previously that after a focal female Japanese quail Coturnix japonica, sees a conspecific male mating, the focal female's tendency to af filiate and to mate with that male is significantly increased. Here we desc ribe two experiments demonstrating that a focal female quail that has seen a conspecific male mating subsequently shows an enhanced tendency to affili ate not only with that particular male, but also with other males that shar e his characteristics. The results have important implications for our unde rstanding of the role of social learning in the evolution of male character istics. (C) 2000 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.