ABSTRACT
The case of the Arabian babblers is a controversial and significant one in ethology. Their dancing, their gifting, their care for nestlings that are not their own, are singular enough to trouble standard sociobiological theories of the evolution of behaviour. The theory of Israeli ornithologist Amotz Zahavi is that the dance is a contest for status that ensures the reliability of communication and that tests and performs their social bonds (Zahavi and Zahavi). Zahavi’s handicap principle has been heavily criticized by sociobiologists, only to later find support in the mathematical modelling of others. But is the real difference of Zahavi’s approach only theoretical, or does it lie elsewhere, in his anthropomorphic descriptions or habituating field methods? And what is so special about the babblers?
