scholarly journals Breaking conversational rules matters to captive gorillas: A playback experiment

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Loïc Pougnault ◽  
Florence Levréro ◽  
Baptiste Mulot ◽  
Alban Lemasson
Keyword(s):  
Playback Experiment

A desert songbird with no confamilials in the Western Hemisphere (Verdin, Auriparus flaviceps) investigates divergent conspecific songs

The Auk ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma I Greig ◽  
Eva Kinnebrew ◽  
Max L Witynski ◽  
Eric C Larsen
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Geographic Variation ◽  
Playback Experiment ◽  
Western Hemisphere ◽  
Monotypic Genus ◽  
Vocal Responses ◽  
Song Variation ◽  
Desert Regions ◽  
Close Relatives

Abstract Most birds that show geographic variation in their songs discriminate between local and foreign songs, which may help them avoid unnecessary conflicts with vagrant individuals or similar-sounding congeners. However, some species respond equally to foreign and local songs, which may be useful if foreign individuals present territorial threats or if there are no sympatric congeners to avoid. Species without sympatric congeners are not commonly tested in playback studies, but they offer an opportunity to see how song variation and recognition unfolds when the pressure to avoid similar congeners is absent. Here, we use Verdins (Auriparus flaviceps), a monotypic genus of songbird with no confamilials in North America, to explore song variation and recognition in a species living without close relatives. We assessed geographic variation in song across the Verdin range and conducted a playback experiment using exemplars from 2 acoustically divergent and geographically distant regions as treatments. We found significant geographic variation in song that mapped well onto ecologically distinct desert regions. We found that Verdins had stronger vocal responses to local-sounding songs, but had equal movement responses to local-sounding and foreign songs. These results are similar to results found in other species without sympatric congeners and provide an example of a species that investigates acoustically divergent conspecific songs, despite recognizing salient differences in those songs.

scholarly journals The effects of unrelated offspring whistle calls on capybaras (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris)

2014 ◽  
Vol 74 (3 suppl 1) ◽  
pp. S171-S176
Author(s):  
E Dos Santos ◽  
RS Tokumaru ◽  
SLG Nogueira Filho ◽  
SSC Nogueira
Keyword(s):  
Sound Source ◽  
Vocal Communication ◽  
Bird Song ◽  
Playback Experiment ◽  
Parental Responsiveness ◽  
Hydrochoerus Hydrochaeris ◽  
Males And Females ◽  
Gender Influences

Parent-offspring vocal communication, such as the isolation call, is one of the essential adaptations in mammals that adjust parental responsiveness. Thus, our aim was to test the hypothesis that the function of the capybara infants' whistle is to attract conspecifics. We designed a playback experiment to investigate the reaction of 20 adult capybaras (seven males and 13 females) to pups' whistle calls – recorded from unrelated offspring – or to bird song, as control. The adult capybaras promptly responded to playback of unrelated pup whistles, while ignoring the bird vocalisation. The adult capybaras took, on average, 2.6 ± 2.5 seconds (s) to show a response to the whistles, with no differences between males and females. However, females look longer (17.0 ± 12.9 s) than males (3.0 ± 7.2 s) toward the sound source when playing the pups' whistle playback. The females also tended to approach the playback source, while males showed just a momentary interruption of ongoing behaviour (feeding). Our results suggest that capybara pups' whistles function as the isolation call in this species, but gender influences the intensity of the response.

scholarly journals Anthropogenic noise affects risk assessment and attention: the distracted prey hypothesis

2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 458-461 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alvin Aaden Yim-Hol Chan ◽  
Paulina Giraldo-Perez ◽  
Sonja Smith ◽  
Daniel T. Blumstein
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Predation Risk ◽  
Animal Communication ◽  
Playback Experiment ◽  
Hermit Crabs ◽  
Anthropogenic Noise ◽  
Motor Noise ◽  
Predation Risk Assessment ◽  
Anthropogenic Sounds

Many studies have focused on the effects of anthropogenic noise on animal communication, but only a few have looked at its effect on other behavioural systems. We designed a playback experiment to test the effect of noise on predation risk assessment. We found that in response to boat motor playback, Caribbean hermit crabs ( Coenobita clypeatus ) allowed a simulated predator to approach closer before they hid. Two hypotheses may explain how boat noise affected risk assessment: it masked an approaching predator's sound; and/or it reallocated some of the crabs' finite attention, effectively distracting them, and thus preventing them from responding to an approaching threat. We found no support for the first hypothesis: a silent looming object still got closer during boat motor playbacks than during silence. However, we found support for the attentional hypothesis: when we added flashing lights to the boat motor noise to further distract the hermit crabs, we were able to approach the crabs more closely than with the noise alone. Anthropogenic sounds may thus distract prey and make them more vulnerable to predation.

Male–male vocal interactions in a territorial neotropical quail: which song characteristics predict a territorial male's response?

Behaviour ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 148 (9-10) ◽  
pp. 1103-1120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis Sandoval
Keyword(s):  
Bird Species ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Playback Experiment ◽  
Conspecific Male ◽  
Low Frequencies ◽  
Behavioural Responses ◽  
Song Rate ◽  
Vocal Behaviour ◽  
Vocal Interactions

AbstractMales singing within their territories can change their song characteristics in order to interact with conspecifics; males may respond to territorial intrusions by vocalizing, approaching the intruder and/or displaying. I studied male–male interactions by quantifying vocal and behavioural responses of male spot-bellied bobwhites (Colinus leucopogon) toward playback of conspecific male songs. Male responses toward playback song depended on the quality of the territorial male's song relative to the playback stimulus. In this species males who sang songs with higher peak and low frequency, longer song duration, and lower song rate were less responsive to simulated territorial intrusions. Spot-bellied bobwhite males that sang in response to the playback increased the low frequencies of their songs relative to pre-playback song, a vocal behaviour related to dominance in males of other species. Males that approached the speaker sang longer songs, a characteristic associated with increased aggression or motivation to fight in other bird species. The results of this playback experiment suggest that male spot-bellied bobwhite song characteristics according to playback characteristics predict response to territorial intrusions and may, therefore, play an important role in male–male interactions.

scholarly journals Adaptive differences in response to two types of parental alarm call in altricial nestlings

2005 ◽  
Vol 272 (1568) ◽  
pp. 1101-1106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dirk Platzen ◽  
Robert D Magrath
Keyword(s):  
Alarm Call ◽  
Playback Experiment ◽  
Alarm Calls ◽  
Stage Of Development ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Gradual Development

Vertebrate alarm calls can contain information about the type of predator and the degree of danger, but young animals often respond to alarm calls differently from adults. The distinct behaviour of young may reflect an imperfect stage in the gradual development of the adult response, or a response adapted to specific risks faced by young. In this study, we tested whether nestling white-browed scrubwrens, Sericornis frontalis , responded to different alarm calls according to their specific risks of predation. As predators on the ground pose a danger to scrubwren nestlings, whereas flying predators do not, we predicted that they would respond to ground alarm calls but not to aerial alarm calls. In a field playback experiment, we tested the response of young to aerial and ground alarm calls, each presented in a shorter (less urgent) and longer (more urgent) form. We found that both 5- and 11-day-old nestlings responded to ground alarm calls, and did so more strongly to the more urgent playback. By contrast, the response to aerial alarm calls started to develop only towards the end of the nestling stage. Thus, scrubwren nestlings can distinguish between different types of alarm calls and react more strongly to calls warning of a predator posing greater danger, appropriate to the nestling stage of development. Furthermore, they use the length of ground alarm calls as an indicator of the degree of danger.

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