Isochrony in barks of Cape fur seal ( Arctocephalus pusillus pusillus ) pups and adults.

Autor: Osiecka AN; Department of Vertebrate Ecology and Zoology, Faculty of Biology University of Gdańsk Gdańsk Poland.; Behavioural Ecology Group, Section for Ecology and Evolution, Department of Biology University of Copenhagen Copenhagen Denmark., Fearey J; Sea Search Research and Conservation NPC Cape Town South Africa.; Department of Statistical Sciences, Centre for Statistics in Ecology, Environment and Conservation University of Cape Town Cape Town Western Cape South Africa., Ravignani A; Comparative Bioacoustics Group Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics Nijmegen The Netherlands.; Center for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical Medicine Aarhus University Aarhus C Denmark.; Department of Human Neurosciences Sapienza University of Rome Rome Italy., Burchardt LS; Comparative Bioacoustics Group Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics Nijmegen The Netherlands.; Leibniz-Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft Berlin Germany.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Ecology and evolution [Ecol Evol] 2024 Mar 07; Vol. 14 (3), pp. e11085. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Mar 07 (Print Publication: 2024).
DOI: 10.1002/ece3.11085
Abstrakt: Animal vocal communication often relies on call sequences. The temporal patterns of such sequences can be adjusted to other callers, follow complex rhythmic structures or exhibit a metronome-like pattern (i.e., isochronous). How regular are the temporal patterns in animal signals, and what influences their precision? If present, are rhythms already there early in ontogeny? Here, we describe an exploratory study of Cape fur seal ( Arctocephalus pusillus pusillus ) barks-a vocalisation type produced across many pinniped species in rhythmic, percussive bouts. This study is the first quantitative description of barking in Cape fur seal pups. We analysed the rhythmic structures of spontaneous barking bouts of pups and adult females from the breeding colony in Cape Cross, Namibia. Barks of adult females exhibited isochrony, that is they were produced at fairly regular points in time. Instead, intervals between pup barks were more variable, that is skipping a bark in the isochronous series occasionally. In both age classes, beat precision, that is how well the barks followed a perfect template, was worse when barking at higher rates. Differences could be explained by physiological factors, such as respiration or arousal. Whether, and how, isochrony develops in this species remains an open question. This study provides evidence towards a rhythmic production of barks in Cape fur seal pups and lays the groundwork for future studies to investigate the development of rhythm using multidimensional metrics.
Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
(© 2024 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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