1
|
Jäckel D, Mortega KG, Sturm U, Brockmeyer U, Khorramshahi O, Voigt-Heucke SL. Opportunities and limitations: A comparative analysis of citizen science and expert recordings for bioacoustic research. PLoS One 2021; 16:e0253763. [PMID: 34181671 PMCID: PMC8238189 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0253763] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/03/2020] [Accepted: 06/11/2021] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Citizen science is an approach that has become increasingly popular in recent years. Despite this growing popularity, there still is widespread scepticism in the academic world about the validity and quality of data from citizen science projects. And although there might be great potential, citizen science is a rarely used approach in the field of bioacoustics. To better understand the possibilities, but also the limitations, we here evaluated data generated in a citizen science project on nightingale song as a case study. We analysed the quantity and quality of song recordings made in a non-standardized way with a smartphone app by citizen scientists and the standardized recordings made with professional equipment by academic researchers. We made comparisons between the recordings of the two approaches and among the user types of the app to gain insights into the temporal recording patterns, the quantity and quality of the data. To compare the deviation of the acoustic parameters in the recordings with smartphones and professional devices from the original song recordings, we conducted a playback test. Our results showed that depending on the user group, citizen scientists produced many to a lot of recordings of valid quality for further bioacoustic research. Differences between the recordings provided by the citizen and the expert group were mainly caused by the technical quality of the devices used—and to a lesser extent by the citizen scientists themselves. Especially when differences in spectral parameters are to be investigated, our results demonstrate that the use of the same high-quality recording devices and calibrated external microphones would most likely improve data quality. We conclude that many bioacoustic research questions may be carried out with the recordings of citizen scientists. We want to encourage academic researchers to get more involved in participatory projects to harness the potential of citizen science—and to share scientific curiosity and discoveries more directly with society.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Denise Jäckel
- Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, Berlin, Germany
- Life Sciences Faculty, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Kim G Mortega
- Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, Berlin, Germany
| | - Ulrike Sturm
- Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, Berlin, Germany
| | - Ulrich Brockmeyer
- Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, Berlin, Germany
| | - Omid Khorramshahi
- Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, Berlin, Germany
| | - Silke L Voigt-Heucke
- Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, Berlin, Germany
- Animal Behaviour, Institute of Biology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Follow the leader? Orange-fronted conures eavesdrop on conspecific vocal performance and utilise it in social decisions. PLoS One 2021; 16:e0252374. [PMID: 34106975 PMCID: PMC8189466 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0252374] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/11/2020] [Accepted: 05/15/2021] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Animals regularly use social information to make fitness-relevant decisions. Particularly in social interactions, social information can reduce uncertainty about the relative quality of conspecifics, thus optimising decisions on with whom and how to interact. One important resource for individuals living in social environments is the production of information by signalling conspecifics. Recent research has suggested that some species of parrots engage in affiliative contact call matching and that these interactions may be available to conspecific unintended receivers. However, it remains unclear what information third parties may gain from contact call matching and how it can be utilised during flock decisions. Here, using a combined choice and playback experiment, we investigated the flock fusion choices and vocal behaviour of a social parrot species, the orange-fronted conure (Eupsittula canicularis), to a contact call matching interaction between two individuals of different sexes and with different vocal roles. Our results revealed that orange-fronted conures chose to follow vocal leaders more often than vocal followers during fusions. Furthermore, flocks responded with higher call rates and matched the stimulus calls closer when subsequently choosing a vocal leader. Interestingly, orange-fronted conures also showed higher contact call rates and closer matches when choosing males over females. These results suggest that paying attention to conspecific contact call interactions can provide individuals with social information that can be utilised during fission and fusion events, significantly influencing the social dynamics of orange-fronted conures.
Collapse
|
3
|
Bircher N, Naguib M. How Songbird Females Sample Male Song: Communication Networks and Mate Choice. CODING STRATEGIES IN VERTEBRATE ACOUSTIC COMMUNICATION 2020. [DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-39200-0_11] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/05/2023]
|
4
|
Hedley RW, Logue DM, Benedict L, Mennill DJ. Assessing the similarity of song-type transitions among birds: evidence for interspecies variation. Anim Behav 2018. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2018.04.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/16/2022]
|
5
|
Cholewiak DM, Cerchio S, Jacobsen JK, Urbán-R. J, Clark CW. Songbird dynamics under the sea: acoustic interactions between humpback whales suggest song mediates male interactions. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2018; 5:171298. [PMID: 29515847 PMCID: PMC5830736 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.171298] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/03/2017] [Accepted: 01/10/2018] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
The function of song has been well studied in numerous taxa and plays a role in mediating both intersexual and intrasexual interactions. Humpback whales are among few mammals who sing, but the role of sexual selection on song in this species is poorly understood. While one predominant hypothesis is that song mediates male-male interactions, the mechanism by which this may occur has never been explored. We applied metrics typically used to assess songbird interactions to examine song sequences and movement patterns of humpback whale singers. We found that males altered their song presentation in the presence of other singers; focal males increased the rate at which they switched between phrase types (p = 0.005), and tended to increase the overall evenness of their song presentation (p = 0.06) after a second male began singing. Two-singer dyads overlapped their song sequences significantly more than expected by chance. Spatial analyses revealed that change in distance between singers was related to whether both males kept singing (p = 0.012), with close approaches leading to song cessation. Overall, acoustic interactions resemble known mechanisms of mediating intrasexual interactions in songbirds. Future work should focus on more precisely resolving how changes in song presentation may be used in competition between singing males.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Danielle M. Cholewiak
- Protected Species Branch, Northeast Fisheries Science Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/National Marine Fisheries Service, Woods Hole, MA, USA
- Department of Neurobiology and Behavior and the Bioacoustics Research Program, Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
| | - Salvatore Cerchio
- New England Aquarium, Boston, MA, USA
- Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, USA
| | - Jeff K. Jacobsen
- Department of Biological Sciences, Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA, USA
| | - Jorge Urbán-R.
- Programa de Investigación de Mamíferos Marinos, Departamento de Biología Marina, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California Sur, La Paz, BCS, México
| | - Christopher W. Clark
- Department of Neurobiology and Behavior and the Bioacoustics Research Program, Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Gersick AS, White DJ. Male cowbirds vary the attractiveness of courtship songs with changes in the social context. BEHAVIOUR 2018. [DOI: 10.1163/1568539x-00003475] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
Abstract
Courtship-signalling theory often incorporates the assumption that males must consistently produce the highest-intensity displays they can achieve, thereby indicating their underlying quality to females. Contest-signalling theory, in contrast, assumes that flexible signal performance is routine. The two frameworks thereby suggest conflicting predictions about male flexibility when the same signal operates in both intrasexual and intersexual communication. Sexual competition often occurs within complex social environments where male displays can be received by potential mates, rivals, or both at once. In brown-headed cowbirds’ breeding flocks, for example, multiple males sometimes vie directly for a single female’s attention; at other times males have opportunities to sing to females without interference. We tested whether cowbirds vary the intensity of their signalling across contexts like these. We recorded songs from males courting females both with and without a male competitor in sight. We then played those recordings to solitary, naïve females in sound attenuation chambers, and also to a naïve aviary-housed flock. The songs males had produced when they could see their competitors were more attractive, eliciting more copulatory postures from naïve females and more approaches from birds in the flock. Results suggest high-intensity displays function within a larger, flexible signalling strategy in this species, and the varying audience composition that accompanies social complexity may demand flexible signalling even in classic display behaviours such as birdsong.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Andrew S. Gersick
- aDepartment of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, 106A Guyot Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544-2016, USA
| | - David J. White
- bDepartment of Psychology, Wilfrid Laurier University, 75 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON, Canada N2L 3C5
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Hedley RW, Denton KK, Weiss RE. Accounting for syntax in analyses of countersinging reveals hidden vocal dynamics in a songbird with a large repertoire. Anim Behav 2017. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2017.06.021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
|
8
|
Landgraf C, Wilhelm K, Wirth J, Weiss M, Kipper S. Affairs happen-to whom? A study on extrapair paternity in common nightingales. Curr Zool 2017; 63:421-431. [PMID: 29492002 PMCID: PMC5804193 DOI: 10.1093/cz/zox024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/01/2016] [Accepted: 03/22/2017] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Most birds engage in extrapair copulations despite great differences across and within species. Besides cost and benefit considerations of the two sex environmental factors have been found to alter mating strategies within or between populations and/or over time. For socially monogamous species, the main advantage that females might gain from mating with multiple males is probably increasing their offspring’s genetic fitness. Since male (genetic) quality is mostly not directly measurable for female birds, (extrapair) mate choice is based on male secondary traits. In passerines male song is such a sexual ornament indicating male phenotypic and/or genetic quality and song repertoires seem to affect female mate choice in a number of species. Yet their role in extrapair mating behavior is not well understood. In this study, we investigated the proportion of extrapair paternity (EPP) in a population of common nightingales Luscinia megarhynchos. We found that EPP rate was rather high (21.5% of all offspring tested) for a species without sexual dimorphism and high levels of paternal care. Furthermore, the occurrence of EPP was strongly related to the spatial distribution of male territories with males settling in densely occupied areas having higher proportions of extrapair young within their own brood. Also, song repertoire size affected EPP: here larger repertoires of social mates were negatively related to the probability of being cuckolded. When directly comparing repertoires sizes of social and extrapair mates, extrapair mates tended to have larger repertoires. We finally discuss our results as a hint for a flexible mating strategy in nightingales where several factors—including ecological as well as male song features—need to be considered when studying reproductive behavior in monogamous species with complex song.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Conny Landgraf
- Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW), Alfred-Kowalke-Straße 17, 10315 Berlin, Germany.,Animal Behavior Group, Free University of Berlin, Takustraße 6, 14195 Berlin, Germany
| | - Kerstin Wilhelm
- Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW), Alfred-Kowalke-Straße 17, 10315 Berlin, Germany.,Institute of Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation Genomics, University of Ulm, Albert Einstein Allee 11, 89069 Ulm, Germany
| | - Jutta Wirth
- Behavioural Ecology Group, Department of Animal Sciences, Wageningen University, De Elst 1, 6708 WD Wageningen, The Netherlands
| | - Michael Weiss
- Animal Behavior Group, Free University of Berlin, Takustraße 6, 14195 Berlin, Germany.,Department of Exposition, Unit Epidemiology, Statistics and Mathematical Modelling, Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), Max-Dohrn-Str. 8-10, 10589 Berlin, Germany
| | - Silke Kipper
- Animal Behavior Group, Free University of Berlin, Takustraße 6, 14195 Berlin, Germany.,Chair of Zoology, School of Life Sciences Weihenstephan, Technische Universität München, Liesel-Beckmann-Straße 4, 85350 Freising, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
9
|
Bartsch C, Weiss M, Kipper S. Multiple song features are related to paternal effort in common nightingales. BMC Evol Biol 2015; 15:115. [PMID: 26084455 PMCID: PMC4471916 DOI: 10.1186/s12862-015-0390-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/05/2015] [Accepted: 05/26/2015] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Sexual ornamentation may be related to the degree of paternal care and the 'good-parent' model predicts that male secondary characters honestly advertise paternal investment. In most birds, males are involved in bringing up the young and successful reproduction highly depends on male contribution during breeding. In passerines, male song is indicative of male attributes and for few species it has been shown that song features also signal paternal investment to females. Males of nightingales Luscinia megarhynchos are famous for their elaborate singing but so far there is only little knowledge on the role of male song in intersexual communication, and it is unknown whether male song predicts male parenting abilities. RESULTS Using RFID technology to record male feeding visits to the nest, we found that nightingale males substantially contribute to chick feeding. Also, we analyzed male nocturnal song with focus on song features that have been shown to signal male quality before. We found that several song features, namely measures of song complexity and song sequencing, were correlated with male feeding rates. Moreover, the combination of these song features had strong predictive power for male contribution to nestling feeding. CONCLUSIONS Since male nightingales are involved in chick rearing, paternal investment might be a crucial variable for female mate choice in this species. Females may assess future paternal care on the basis of song features identified in our study and thus these features may have evolved to signal direct benefits to females. Additionally we underline the importance of multiple acoustic cues for female mating decisions especially in species with complex song such as the nightingale.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Conny Bartsch
- Animal Behavior Group, Freie Universität Berlin, Takustraße 6, 14195, Berlin, Germany.
| | - Michael Weiss
- Department of Exposition, Unit Epidemiology, Statistics and Mathematical Modelling, Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), Max-Dohrn-Straße 8-10, 10589, Berlin, Germany.
| | - Silke Kipper
- Animal Behavior Group, Freie Universität Berlin, Takustraße 6, 14195, Berlin, Germany. .,Chair of Zoology, Technische Universität München, Liesel-Beckmann-Str. 4, 85354, Freising, Germany.
| |
Collapse
|
10
|
Kipper S, Kiefer S, Bartsch C, Weiss M. Female calling? Song responses to conspecific call playbacks in nightingales, Luscinia megarhynchos. Anim Behav 2015. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2014.11.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/04/2023]
|