Acoustic Features Indicate Arousal in Infant Giant Panda Vocalisations

Stoeger, Angela S.; Baotic, Anton; Li, Desheng; Charlton, Benjamin D.

doi:10.1111/j.1439-0310.2012.02080.x

Cited by 35 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…Although frequently vocalizing kittens are presumably more aroused and distressed than less frequently vocalizing kittens (cf. Briefer, ; Jürgens, ; Stoeger, Baotic, Li, & Charlton, ; Stoeger, Charlton, Kratochvil, & Fitch, ; further examples in Grandin & Deesing, ), for a better understanding of this assumption it is necessary to investigate physiological correlates of these behavioral differences. One non‐invasive method would be to measure levels of the “stress” hormone cortisol in saliva immediately before and after separation tests (Beerda, Schilder, Janssen, & Mol, ; Beerda, Schilder, van Hooff, de Vries, & Mol, ; Bergamasco et al, ; Koolhaas, De Boer, Coppens, & Buwalda, ; Schmidt, Möstl, Wehnert, Aurich, Müller, & Aurich, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Highly stable individual differences in the emission of separation calls during early development in the domestic cat

Hudson

Chacha

Bánszegi

et al. 2017

Developmental Psychobiology

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Study of the development of individuality is often hampered by rapidly changing behavioral repertoires and the need for minimally intrusive tests. We individually tested 33 kittens from eight litters of the domestic cat in an arena for 3 min once a week for the first 3 postnatal weeks, recording the number of separation calls and the duration of locomotor activity. Kittens showed consistent and stable individual differences on both measures across and within trials. Stable individual differences in the emission of separation calls across trials emerged already within the first 10 s of testing, and in locomotor activity within the first 30 s. Furthermore, individual kittens' emission of separation calls, but not their locomotor activity, was highly stable within trials. We conclude that separation calls provide an efficient, minimally intrusive and reliable measure of individual differences in behavior during development in the cat, and possibly in other species emitting such calls.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Highly stable individual differences in the emission of separation calls during early development in the domestic cat

Hudson

Chacha

Bánszegi

et al. 2017

Developmental Psychobiology

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“…Noisy screams, cries, and other sounds often contain specific structural characteristics that are particularly evocative to listeners. These nonlinear acoustic phenomena are found in vocalizations from a variety of taxa including terrestrial mammals (Blumstein, Richardson, Cooley, Winternitz, & Daniel, 2008;Charlton, 2015;Charlton, Watchorn, & Whisson, 2017;Rendall et al 2009;Riede, Arcadi, & Owren, 2007;Stoeger, Baotic, Li, & Charlton, 2012;Stoeger, Charlton, Kratochvil, & Fitch, 2011;Tokuda, Riede, Neubauer, Owren, & Herzel, 2002;Wilden, Herzel, Peters, & Tembrock, 1998), marine mammals (Tyson, Nowacek, & Miller, 2007), frogs (Pettitt, Bourne, & Bee, 2012), toadfish (Rice, Land, & Bass, 2011), and birds (Fee, Shraiman, Pesaran, & Mitra, 1998).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do birds differentiate between white noise and deterministic chaos?

et al. 2017

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Noisy, unpredictable sounds are often present in the vocalizations of fearful and stressed animals across many taxa. A variety of structural characteristics, called nonlinear acoustic phenomena, that include subharmonics, rapid frequency modulations, and deterministic chaos are responsible for the harsh sound quality of these vocalizations. Exposure to nonlinear sound can elicit increased arousal in birds and mammals. Past experiments have used white noise to test for effects of deterministic chaos on perceivers. However, deterministic chaos differs structurally from white noise (i.e., random signal with equal energy at all frequencies), and unlike white noise, may differ dramatically depending on how it is produced. In addition, the subtle structural variation of chaos may not be distinguishable in the environment due to the attenuation and degradation of sound over distance and different habitat types. We designed two experiments to clarify whether American robins (Turdus migratorius) and warbling vireos (Vireo gilvus) discriminate between white noise and deterministic chaos. We broadcast and re‐recorded white noise and two exemplars of deterministic chaos—one generated with a Chua oscillator and the other generated using a logistic equation—at 1, 10, 20, 30, 40, and 80 m across open and forested habitat and used spectrogram correlations to compare stimuli along this degradational gradient. We found that sounds degraded similarly in both habitats when compared to a reference distance of 1 m. Comparing pairs of stimuli across distances suggested that Chua chaos was more easily distinguishable from noise and logistic chaos. In addition, all stimuli became more distinctive over increased distance. The second experiment tested behavioral responses of robins and warbling vireos to control sounds of tropical kingbird (Quiscalus mexicanus), white noise, and two exemplars of deterministic chaos (Chua and logistic). Neither American robins nor warbling vireos responded differently to at least two types of deterministic chaos and white noise, validating previous playback studies that used white noise as a surrogate for deterministic chaos. Uniform responses to a variety of nonlinear features in these birds possibly reflect error management in alarm signal detection.

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“…Non-linear phenomena are theorised to have adaptive significance in various behavioural contexts. For instance, the amount of biphonation in infant African elephant (Loxodonta africana) and giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) vocalisations reflects the current arousal/ motivational state of offspring (Stoeger, Baotic, Li, & Charlton, 2012;Stoeger, Charlton, Kratochvil, & Fitch, 2011) and could, therefore, allow mothers to respond differentially based on their infant's degree of need in both of these species. Biphonation may also reflect the caller's physical condition in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) (Riede et al, 2007) and enhance the individual distinctiveness of dhole vocalisations (Cuon alpinus) (Volodina, Volodin, Isaeva, & Unck, 2006).…”

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confidence: 99%

Subharmonics increase the auditory impact of female koala rejection calls

2017

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Although non‐linear phenomena are common in human and non‐human animal vocalisations, their functional relevance remains poorly understood. One theory posits that non‐linear phenomena generate unpredictability in vocalisations, which increases the auditory impact of vocal signals, and makes animals less likely to habituate to call repetition. Female koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) produce vocal signals when they reject male copulation attempts that contain relatively high levels of non‐linear phenomena, and thus may function as attention grabbing vocal signals during the breeding season. To test this hypothesis, we used playback experiments: firstly, to determine whether female rejection calls induce heightened behavioural responses in free‐ranging male koalas during the breeding season, and secondly, to examine how the relative amount of non‐linear phenomena in rejection calls influences male behavioural response. The results show that male koalas look for longer towards speakers broadcasting playback sequences of male bellows followed by a series of female rejection calls than those broadcasting only male bellows. In addition, female rejection call sequences with more subharmonics, higher harmonics‐to‐noise ratios, and less biphonation produced the greatest male looking responses. Our findings support the hypothesis that female koala rejection calls function to grab male attention during the breeding season, and indicate that subharmonics are the main acoustic feature that increases the auditory impact of these vocal signals.

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Acoustic Features Indicate Arousal in Infant Giant Panda Vocalisations

Cited by 35 publications

References 59 publications

Highly stable individual differences in the emission of separation calls during early development in the domestic cat

Highly stable individual differences in the emission of separation calls during early development in the domestic cat

Do birds differentiate between white noise and deterministic chaos?

Subharmonics increase the auditory impact of female koala rejection calls

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