Call order within vocal sequences of meerkats contains temporary contextual and individual information

Autor: Bart Kranstauber, Marta B. Manser, Ramona Rauber
Přispěvatelé: University of Zurich, Rauber, Ramona, Theoretical and Computational Ecology (IBED, FNWI)
Jazyk: angličtina
Předmět:
0106 biological sciences
Animal vocal sequences
Male
Physiology
Herpestidae
Human language
Plant Science
1100 General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
Biology
Alarm signal
010603 evolutionary biology
01 natural sciences
General Biochemistry
Genetics and Molecular Biology
1309 Developmental Biology
1307 Cell Biology
10127 Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies
1315 Structural Biology
Structural Biology
1300 General Biochemistry
Genetics and Molecular Biology
Call gradation
1110 Plant Science
Contextual information
Animals
0501 psychology and cognitive sciences
050102 behavioral science & comparative psychology
Sentinel behaviour
Social Behavior
lcsh:QH301-705.5
Ecology
Evolution
Behavior and Systematics
Communication
business.industry
Individually distinct call patterns
05 social sciences
Cell Biology
1314 Physiology
Acoustics
Combinatoriality
1105 Ecology
Evolution
Behavior and Systematics
lcsh:Biology (General)
1305 Biotechnology
570 Life sciences
biology
590 Animals (Zoology)
Female
Vocalization
Animal
General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
business
Developmental Biology
Biotechnology
Research Article
Zdroj: BMC Biology
BMC Biology, Vol 18, Iss 1, Pp 1-11 (2020)
BMC Biology, 18:119. BioMed Central
ISSN: 1741-7007
DOI: 10.1186/s12915-020-00847-8
Popis: Background The ability to recombine smaller units to produce infinite structures of higher-order phrases is unique to human language, yet evidence of animals to combine multiple acoustic units into meaningful combinations increases constantly. Despite increasing evidence for meaningful call combinations across contexts, little attention has been paid to the potential role of temporal variation of call type composition in longer vocal sequences in conveying information about subtle changes in the environment or individual differences. Here, we investigated the composition and information content of sentinel call sequences in meerkats (Suricata suricatta). While being on sentinel guard, a coordinated vigilance behaviour, meerkats produce long sequences composed of six distinct sentinel call types and alarm calls. We analysed recordings of sentinels to test if the order of the call types is graded and whether they contain additional group-, individual-, age- or sex-specific vocal signatures. Results Our results confirmed that the six distinct types of sentinel calls in addition to alarm calls were produced in a highly graded way, likely referring to changes in the perceived predation risk. Transitions between call types one step up or down the a priory assumed gradation were over-represented, while transitions over two or three steps were significantly under-represented. Analysing sequence similarity within and between groups and individuals demonstrated that sequences composed of the most commonly emitted sentinel call types showed high within-individual consistency whereby adults and females had higher consistency scores than subadults and males respectively. Conclusions We present a novel type of combinatoriality where the order of the call types contains temporary contextual information, and also relates to the identity of the caller. By combining different call types in a graded way over long periods, meerkats constantly convey meaningful information about subtle changes in the external environment, while at the same time the temporal pattern of the distinct call types contains stable information about caller identity. Our study demonstrates how complex animal call sequences can be described by simple rules, in this case gradation across acoustically distinct, but functionally related call types, combined with individual-specific call patterns.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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