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Favaro L, Zanoli A, Ludynia K, Snyman A, Carugati F, Friard O, Scaglione FE, Manassero L, Valazza A, Mathevon N, Gamba M, Reby D. Vocal tract shape variation contributes to individual vocal identity in African penguins. Proc Biol Sci 2023; 290:20231029. [PMID: 37817600 PMCID: PMC10565386 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2023.1029] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/09/2023] [Accepted: 09/18/2023] [Indexed: 10/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Variation in formant frequencies has been shown to affect social interactions and sexual competition in a range of avian species. Yet, the anatomical bases of this variation are poorly understood. Here, we investigated the morphological correlates of formants production in the vocal apparatus of African penguins. We modelled the geometry of the supra-syringeal vocal tract of 20 specimens to generate a population of virtual vocal tracts with varying dimensions. We then estimated the acoustic response of these virtual vocal tracts and extracted the centre frequency of the first four predicted formants. We demonstrate that: (i) variation in length and cross-sectional area of vocal tracts strongly affects the formant pattern, (ii) the tracheal region determines most of this variation, and (iii) the skeletal size of penguins does not correlate with the trachea length and consequently has relatively little effect on formants. We conclude that in African penguins, while the variation in vocal tract geometry generates variation in resonant frequencies supporting the discrimination of conspecifics, such variation does not provide information on the emitter's body size. Overall, our findings advance our understanding of the role of formant frequencies in bird vocal communication.
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Affiliation(s)
- Livio Favaro
- ENES Bioacoustics Research Laboratory, CRNL, University of Saint-Etienne, CNRS, Inserm, Saint-Etienne, France
- Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
| | - Anna Zanoli
- Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
| | - Katrin Ludynia
- Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB), Cape Town, South Africa
- Department of Biodiversity and Conservation Biology, University of the Western Cape, Bellville, South Africa
| | - Albert Snyman
- Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB), Cape Town, South Africa
| | - Filippo Carugati
- Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
| | - Olivier Friard
- Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
| | | | - Luca Manassero
- Department of Veterinary Science, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
| | - Alberto Valazza
- Department of Veterinary Science, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
| | - Nicolas Mathevon
- ENES Bioacoustics Research Laboratory, CRNL, University of Saint-Etienne, CNRS, Inserm, Saint-Etienne, France
- Institut Universitaire de France, Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, 1 rue Descartes, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France
| | - Marco Gamba
- Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
| | - David Reby
- ENES Bioacoustics Research Laboratory, CRNL, University of Saint-Etienne, CNRS, Inserm, Saint-Etienne, France
- Institut Universitaire de France, Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, 1 rue Descartes, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France
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Terranova F, Baciadonna L, Maccarone C, Isaja V, Gamba M, Favaro L. Penguins perceive variations of source- and filter-related vocal parameters of species-specific vocalisations. Anim Cogn 2023; 26:1613-1622. [PMID: 37401990 PMCID: PMC10442253 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-023-01806-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/09/2023] [Revised: 05/22/2023] [Accepted: 06/27/2023] [Indexed: 07/05/2023]
Abstract
Animal vocalisations encode a wide range of biological information about the age, sex, body size, and social status of the emitter. Moreover, vocalisations play a significant role in signalling the identity of the emitter to conspecifics. Recent studies have shown that, in the African penguin (Spheniscus demersus), acoustic cues to individual identity are encoded in the fundamental frequency (F0) and resonance frequencies (formants) of the vocal tract. However, although penguins are known to produce vocalisations where F0 and formants vary among individuals, it remains to be tested whether the receivers can perceive and use such information in the individual recognition process. In this study, using the Habituation-Dishabituation (HD) paradigm, we tested the hypothesis that penguins perceive and respond to a shift of ± 20% (corresponding to the natural inter-individual variation observed in ex-situ colonies) of F0 and formant dispersion (ΔF) of species-specific calls. We found that penguins were more likely to look rapidly and for longer at the source of the sound when F0 and formants of the calls were manipulated, indicating that they could perceive variations of these parameters in the vocal signals. Our findings provide the first experimental evidence that, in the African penguin, listeners can perceive changes in F0 and formants, which can be used by the receiver as potential cues for the individual discrimination of the emitter.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francesca Terranova
- Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
| | - Luigi Baciadonna
- Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
| | - Chiara Maccarone
- Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
| | | | - Marco Gamba
- Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
| | - Livio Favaro
- Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
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3
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Selection levels on vocal individuality: strategic use or byproduct. Curr Opin Behav Sci 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cobeha.2022.101140] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
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Adret P. Developmental Plasticity in Primate Coordinated Song: Parallels and Divergences With Duetting Songbirds. Front Ecol Evol 2022. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2022.862196] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Homeothermic animals (birds and mammals) are prime model systems for investigating the developmental plasticity and neural mechanisms of vocal duetting, a cooperative acoustic signal that prevails in family-living and pair-bonded species including humans. This review focuses on the nature of this trait and its nurturing during ontogeny and extending into adulthood. I begin by outlining the underpinning concepts of duet codes and pair-specific answering rules as used by birds to develop their learned coordinated song, driven by a complex interaction between self-generated and socially mediated auditory feedback. The more tractable avian model of duetting helps identify research gaps in singing primates that also use duetting as a type of intraspecific vocal interaction. Nevertheless, it has become clear that primate coordinated song—whether overlapping or antiphonal—is subject to some degree of vocal flexibility. This is reflected in the ability of lesser apes, titi monkeys, tarsiers, and lemurs to adjust the structure and timing of their calls through (1) social influence, (2) coordinated duetting both before and after mating, (3) the repair of vocal mistakes, (4) the production of heterosexual song early in life, (5) vocal accommodation in call rhythm, (6) conditioning, and (7) innovation. Furthermore, experimental work on the neural underpinnings of avian and mammalian antiphonal duets point to a hierarchical (cortico-subcortical) control mechanism that regulates, via inhibition, the temporal segregation of rapid vocal exchanges. I discuss some weaknesses in this growing field of research and highlight prospective avenues for future investigation.
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Clink DJ, Lau AR. Adherence to Menzerath's Law is the exception (not the rule) in three duetting primate species. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2020; 7:201557. [PMID: 33391812 PMCID: PMC7735330 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.201557] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/30/2020] [Accepted: 10/27/2020] [Indexed: 05/04/2023]
Abstract
Across diverse systems including language, music and genomes, there is a tendency for longer sequences to contain shorter constituents; this phenomenon is known as Menzerath's Law. Whether Menzerath's Law is a universal in biological systems, is the result of compression (wherein shortest possible strings represent the maximum amount of information) or emerges from an inevitable relationship between sequence and constituent length remains a topic of debate. In non-human primates, the vocalizations of geladas, male gibbons and chimpanzees exhibit patterns consistent with Menzerath's Law. Here, we use existing datasets of three duetting primate species (tarsiers, titi monkeys and gibbons) to examine the wide-scale applicability of Menzerath's Law. Primate duets provide a useful comparative model to test for the broad-scale applicability of Menzerath's Law, as they evolved independently under presumably similar selection pressures and are emitted under the same context(s) across taxa. Only four out of the eight call types we examined were consistent with Menzerath's Law. Two of these call types exhibited a negative relationship between the position of the note in the call and note duration, indicating that adherence to Menzerath's Law in these call types may be related to breathing constraints. Exceptions to Menzerath's Law occur when notes are relatively homogeneous, or when species-specific call structure leads to a deterministic decrease in note duration. We show that adherence to Menzerath's Law is the exception rather than the rule in duetting primates. It is possible that selection pressures for long-range signals that can travel effectively over large distances was stronger than that of compression in primate duets. Future studies investigating adherence to Menzerath's Law across the vocal repertoires of these species will help us better elucidate the pressures that shape both short- and long-distance acoustic signals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dena J. Clink
- Center for Conservation Bioacoustics, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA
| | - Allison R. Lau
- Animal Behavior Graduate Group, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA
- California National Primate Research Center, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA
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Stowell D, Petrusková T, Šálek M, Linhart P. Automatic acoustic identification of individuals in multiple species: improving identification across recording conditions. J R Soc Interface 2020; 16:20180940. [PMID: 30966953 PMCID: PMC6505557 DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2018.0940] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Many animals emit vocal sounds which, independently from the sounds' function, contain some individually distinctive signature. Thus the automatic recognition of individuals by sound is a potentially powerful tool for zoology and ecology research and practical monitoring. Here, we present a general automatic identification method that can work across multiple animal species with various levels of complexity in their communication systems. We further introduce new analysis techniques based on dataset manipulations that can evaluate the robustness and generality of a classifier. By using these techniques, we confirmed the presence of experimental confounds in situations resembling those from past studies. We introduce data manipulations that can reduce the impact of these confounds, compatible with any classifier. We suggest that assessment of confounds should become a standard part of future studies to ensure they do not report over-optimistic results. We provide annotated recordings used for analyses along with this study and we call for dataset sharing to be a common practice to enhance the development of methods and comparisons of results.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dan Stowell
- 1 Machine Listening Lab, Centre for Digital Music, Queen Mary University of London , London , UK
| | - Tereza Petrusková
- 2 Department of Ecology, Faculty of Science, Charles University , Prague , Czech Republic
| | - Martin Šálek
- 3 Institute of Vertebrate Biology, The Czech Academy of Sciences , Brno , Czech Republic.,4 Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague , Prague , Czech Republic
| | - Pavel Linhart
- 5 Department of Behavioural Ecology, Faculty of Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University , Poznań , Poland
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Clink DJ, Tasirin JS, Klinck H. Vocal individuality and rhythm in male and female duet contributions of a nonhuman primate. Curr Zool 2020; 66:173-186. [PMID: 32440276 PMCID: PMC7233616 DOI: 10.1093/cz/zoz035] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/09/2019] [Accepted: 06/13/2019] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Duetting, or the stereotypical, repeated and often coordinated vocalizations between 2 individuals arose independently multiple times in the Order Primates. Across primate species, there exists substantial variation in terms of timing, degree of overlap, and sex-specificity of duet contributions. There is increasing evidence that primates can modify the timing of their duet contributions relative to their partner, and this vocal flexibility may have been an important precursor to the evolution of human language. Here, we present the results of a fine-scale analysis of Gursky's spectral tarsier Tarsius spectrumgurskyae duet phrases recorded in North Sulawesi, Indonesia. Specifically, we aimed to investigate individual-level variation in the female and male contributions to the duet, quantify individual- and pair-level differences in duet timing, and measure temporal precision of duetting individuals relative to their partner. We were able to classify female duet phrases to the correct individual with an 80% accuracy using support vector machines, whereas our classification accuracy for males was lower at 64%. Females were more variable than males in terms of timing between notes. All tarsier phrases exhibited some degree of overlap between callers, and tarsiers exhibited high temporal precision in their note output relative to their partners. We provide evidence that duetting tarsier individuals can modify their note output relative to their duetting partner, and these results support the idea that flexibility in vocal exchanges-a precursor to human language-evolved early in the primate lineage and long before the emergence of modern humans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dena J Clink
- Bioacoustics Research Program, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14850, USA
| | - Johny S Tasirin
- Faculty of Agriculture, Sam Ratulangi University, Manado, Indonesia
| | - Holger Klinck
- Bioacoustics Research Program, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14850, USA
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Farrow LF, Barati A, McDonald PG. Cooperative bird discriminates between individuals based purely on their aerial alarm calls. Behav Ecol 2019. [DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arz182] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
AbstractFrom an evolutionary perspective, the ability to recognize individuals provides great selective advantages, such as avoiding inbreeding depression during breeding. Whilst the capacity to recognize individuals for these types of benefits is well established in social contexts, why this recognition might arise in a potentially deadly alarm-calling context following predator encounters is less obvious. For example, in most avian systems, alarm signals directed toward aerial predators represent higher predation risk and vulnerability than when individuals vocalize toward a terrestrial-based predator. Although selection should favor simple, more effective alarm calls to these dangerous aerial predators, the potential of these signals to nonetheless encode additional information such as caller identity has not received a great deal of attention. We tested for individual discrimination capacity in the aerial alarm vocalizations of the noisy miner (Manorina melanocephala), a highly social honeyeater that has been previously shown to be able to discriminate between the terrestrial alarm signals of individuals. Utilizing habituation–discrimination paradigm testing, we found conclusive evidence of individual discrimination in the aerial alarm calls of noisy miners, which was surprisingly of similar efficiency to their ability to discriminate between less urgent terrestrial alarm signals. Although the mechanism(s) driving this behavior is currently unclear, it most likely occurs as a result of selection favoring individualism among other social calls in the repertoire of this cooperative species. This raises the intriguing possibility that individualistic signatures in vocalizations of social animals might be more widespread than currently appreciated, opening new areas of bioacoustics research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lucy F Farrow
- Behavioural and Physiological Ecology Research Centre, Department of Zoology, School of Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Ahmad Barati
- Behavioural and Physiological Ecology Research Centre, Department of Zoology, School of Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Paul G McDonald
- Behavioural and Physiological Ecology Research Centre, Department of Zoology, School of Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales, Australia
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Volodin IA, Klenova AV, Ilchenko OG, Volodina EV. High frequency audible calls in northern birch mice Sicista betulina in response to handling: effects of individuality, sex and body mass on the acoustics. BMC Res Notes 2019; 12:677. [PMID: 31640790 PMCID: PMC6805337 DOI: 10.1186/s13104-019-4719-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/29/2019] [Accepted: 10/10/2019] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVES This is the first study of the sonic and ultrasonic vocalization in a Dipodidae rodent. For the small-sized quadrupedal northern birch mouse Sicista betulina, phylogenetically related to the bipedal jerboas (Dipodidae), we report null results for ultrasonic vocalization and investigate the acoustic cues to individual identity, sex and body size in the discomfort-related high-frequency tonal sonic calls. RESULTS We used a parallel audio recording in the sonic and ultrasonic ranges during weighting adult northern birch mice before the scheduled hibernation in captivity. The sonic (audible) high-frequency tonal calls (ranging from 6.21 to 9.86 kHz) were presented in all individuals (7 males and 4 females). The ultrasonic calls lacked in the recordings. Two-way nested ANOVA revealed the effects of caller individual identity on all 10 measured acoustic variables and the effects of sex on four out of 10 measured acoustic variables. Discriminant function analyses with 10 acoustic variables included in the analysis showed 85.5% correct assignment of calls to individual and 79.7% correct assignment of calls to sex; both values significantly exceeded the random values (23.1% and 54.3%, respectively) calculated with randomization procedure. Body mass did not differ between sexes and did not correlate significantly with the acoustic variables.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ilya A Volodin
- Department of Vertebrate Zoology, Faculty of Biology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Vorobievy Gory, 1/12, Moscow, 119234, Russia. .,Scientific Research Department, Moscow Zoo, B. Gruzinskaya, 1, Moscow, 123242, Russia.
| | - Anna V Klenova
- Department of Vertebrate Zoology, Faculty of Biology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Vorobievy Gory, 1/12, Moscow, 119234, Russia
| | - Olga G Ilchenko
- Scientific Research Department, Moscow Zoo, B. Gruzinskaya, 1, Moscow, 123242, Russia
| | - Elena V Volodina
- Scientific Research Department, Moscow Zoo, B. Gruzinskaya, 1, Moscow, 123242, Russia
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Volodin IA, Matrosova VA, Frey R, Kozhevnikova JD, Isaeva IL, Volodina EV. Altai pika (Ochotona alpina) alarm calls: individual acoustic variation and the phenomenon of call-synchronous ear folding behavior. THE SCIENCE OF NATURE - NATURWISSENSCHAFTEN 2018; 105:40. [PMID: 29892847 DOI: 10.1007/s00114-018-1567-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/03/2018] [Revised: 05/25/2018] [Accepted: 05/29/2018] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
Non-hibernating pikas collect winter food reserves and store them in hay piles. Individualization of alarm calls might allow discrimination between colony members and conspecifics trying to steal food items from a colony pile. We investigated vocal posture, vocal tract length, and individual acoustic variation of alarm calls, emitted by wild-living Altai pikas Ochotona alpina toward a researcher. Recording started when a pika started calling and lasted as long as possible. The alarm call series of 442 individual callers from different colonies consisted of discrete short (0.073-0.157 s), high-frequency (7.31-15.46 kHz), and frequency-modulated calls separated by irregular intervals. Analysis of 442 discrete calls, the second of each series, revealed that 44.34% calls lacked nonlinear phenomena, in 7.02% nonlinear phenomena covered less than half of call duration, and in 48.64% nonlinear phenomena covered more than half of call duration. Peak frequencies varied among individuals but always fitted one of three maxima corresponding to the vocal tract resonance frequencies (formants) calculated for an estimated 45-mm oral vocal tract. Discriminant analysis using variables of 8 calls per series of 36 different callers, each from a different colony, correctly assigned over 90% of the calls to individuals. Consequently, Altai pika alarm calls are individualistic and nonlinear phenomena might further increase this acoustic individualization. Additionally, video analysis revealed a call-synchronous, very fast (0.13-0.23 s) folding, depression, and subsequent re-expansion of the pinna confirming an earlier report of this behavior that apparently contributes to protecting the hearing apparatus from damage by the self-generated high-intensity alarm calls.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ilya A Volodin
- Department of Vertebrate Zoology, Faculty of Biology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Vorobievy Gory, 12/1, Moscow, 119234, Russia. .,Scientific Research Department, Moscow Zoo, B. Gruzinskaya str., 1, Moscow, 123242, Russia.
| | - Vera A Matrosova
- Department of Structural and Functional Genomics, Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Vavilov str., 32, Moscow, 119991, Russia
| | - Roland Frey
- Department of Reproduction Management, Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW), Alfred-Kowalke-Str. 17, Berlin, Germany
| | - Julia D Kozhevnikova
- Department of Vertebrate Zoology, Faculty of Biology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Vorobievy Gory, 12/1, Moscow, 119234, Russia
| | - Inna L Isaeva
- Scientific Research Department, Khakasskiy State Nature Reserve, Tsukanov str., 164, Abakan, 655017, Russia
| | - Elena V Volodina
- Scientific Research Department, Moscow Zoo, B. Gruzinskaya str., 1, Moscow, 123242, Russia
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