Undergraduate Research: An Archive - 2022 Program
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Madison Hamilton ’22<br />
ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY<br />
Senior Thesis <strong>Research</strong> Funding Awardee<br />
THESIS TITLE<br />
Seeing Double: The Role<br />
of Third-party Social<br />
Dominance Mimicry as a<br />
Driver of Plumage<br />
Similarity in Hairy and<br />
Downy Woodpeckers<br />
ADVISER<br />
Mary Caswell (Cassie)<br />
Stoddard, Associate<br />
Professor of Ecology<br />
and Evolutionary<br />
Biology<br />
Hairy and downy woodpeckers exhibit an<br />
intriguing case of plumage mimicry. The<br />
third-party social dominance mimicry (TSDM)<br />
hypothesis suggests that the subordinate downy<br />
mimics the larger, dominant hairy to gain a<br />
foraging advantage, as well as a higher socialdominance<br />
ranking than expected. I tested<br />
this hypothesis using two downy woodpecker<br />
replicas: A good mimic that closely resembles<br />
the plumage patterning of the hairy and downy,<br />
and a poor mimic that lacks their distinctive<br />
plumage patterning. I placed these replicas on<br />
a bird feeder one at a time and recorded birds’<br />
behavioral interactions with each. I analyzed<br />
these interactions and found that third-party<br />
species showed trends indicating they were<br />
more afraid of the good replica. Additionally, I<br />
constructed a social dominance hierarchy of the<br />
birds in my experiment and found a correlation<br />
between body mass and dominance ranking,<br />
although I did not find enough evidence to<br />
support the idea that the downy exhibits a<br />
higher dominance ranking than expected for its<br />
mass. These results provided some support for<br />
the TSDM hypothesis, but further research is<br />
necessary to fully explore its validity.<br />
CONSERVATION<br />
AND BIODIVERSITY<br />
12
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