Endangered pink pigeons treat calls of the ubiquitous Madagascan turtle dove as conspecific

Responding to allospecific territorial signals may result in the unnecessary expenditure of energy and time and is therefore, in general, not adaptive. The signals of closely related species are often similar owing to common ancestry, especially when species evolve in allopatry. However, selection for species recognition in sympatry tends to result in distinct territorial signals. The endangered pink pigeon, Nesoenas mayeri, endemic to Mauritius, occurs in sympatry with the invasive Madagascan turtle dove, Nesoenas picturata, and their perch-coos are remarkably similar. We conducted playback experiments to test whether pink pigeons respond to coos from Madagascan turtle doves. Pink pigeons responded similarly to playback of conspecific and Madagascan turtle dove coos but not to those of the more distantly related and sympatric Stigmatopelia chinensis. This study stresses the need to identify the impact of N. picturata on the breeding success and conservation of N. mayeri.