Acoustic analysis of the alarm call of the Anatolian ground squirrel Spermophilus xanthoprymnus: a description and comparison with alarm calls of the Taurus S. taurensis and European S. citellus ground squirrels

Abstract

The Anatolian ground squirrel Spermophilus xanthoprymnus like other ground-dwelling sciurids, emits alarm calls in the presence of predators. In this study, we provide a description of the acoustic structure of alarm call of this species and compare it to those of two closely related species, the Taurus ground squirrel Spermophilus taurensis and the European ground squirrel Spermophilus citellus. The alarm call of S. xanthoprymnus is a tonal sound mostly consisting of two different elements-the first element has low frequency modulation while the second element is highly frequency modulated. A similar basic structure can be found in the alarm calls of some other old world ground squirrel species of the genus Spermophilus, including S. taurensis and S. citellus. Despite this similarity, we found that these three species can be clearly distinguished on the basis of their alarm calls. Differences in the acoustic structure of S. xanthoprymnus and S. taurensis calls are especially remarkable, as these two species were considered to be conspecific until 2007. S. xanthoprymnus and S. taurensis were also demonstrated to have closer acoustic similarity, which is in contrast to results based on molecular data indicating that S. taurensis is most closely related to S. citellus.

The effect of body size and habitat on the evolution of alarm vocalizations in rodents

“…When male and female calls were reported, we focused on male calls (the same criteria was adopted for body mass). However, previous studies have reported very little or a total absence of sexrelated variation in the structure of alarm call notes (Miller & Engstrom, 2007;Matrosova et al, 2011;Schneiderov a & Policht, 2012). This is not entirely unexpected given that many rodents are typically monomorphic or exhibit slight sexual size dimorphism (Schulte-Hostedde, 2007;Lu, Zhou & Liao, 2014).…”

“…However, previous studies have reported very little or a total absence of sexrelated variation in the structure of alarm call notes (Miller & Engstrom, 2007;Matrosova et al, 2011;Schneiderov a & Policht, 2012). Most information originates from studies published in specialized journals (Bioacoustics, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America) and species reviews (http://www.science.smith.edu/ departments/Biology/VHAYSSEN/msi).…”

Spermophilus citellus(Rodentia: Sciuridae)

“…Compared to S. xanthoprymnus (see Gür and Gür 2010), diagnostic characters for S. citellus are as follows: the skull is less angular, back indistinctly spotted, and tail longer (S. xanthoprymnus, range: 30-72 mm; S. citellus, range: 31-90 mm) with black hairs dorsally Vohralík 2005, 2012). S. citellus, S. taurensis, and S. xanthoprymnus can be clearly distinguished on the basis of their alarm calls (Schneiderova´and Policht 2011a, 2011b.…”

Sexual accent and biphonation in the ground squirrels’ sound signal (Mammalia, Rodentia)

“…1). Наличие двух компонентов ранее было обнаружено в сигнале шести из 15 видов сусликов Евразии [3][4][5].…”

“…Благодарности. Это исследование инициировано публикациями Ирены Шнайдеровой [5,8,12], за что автор выражает ей свою глубокую и искреннюю благодарность.…”