Acoustic Structure and Contextual Use of Calls by Captive Male and Female Cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus)

Abstract

The vocal repertoire of captive cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) and the specific role of meow vocalizations in communication of this species attract research interest about two dozen years. Here, we expand this research focus for the contextual use of call types, sex differences and individual differences at short and long terms. During 457 trials of acoustic recordings, we collected calls (n = 8120) and data on their contextual use for 13 adult cheetahs (6 males and 7 females) in four Russian zoos. The cheetah vocal repertoire comprised 7 call types produced in 8 behavioural contexts. Context-specific call types (chirr, growl, howl and hiss) were related to courting behaviour (chirr) or to aggressive behaviour (growl, howl and hiss). Other call types (chirp, purr and meow) were not context-specific. The values of acoustic variables differed between call types. The meow was the most often call type. Discriminant function analysis revealed a high potential of meows to encode individual identity and sex at short terms, however, the vocal individuality was unstable over years. We discuss the contextual use and acoustic variables of call types, the ratios of individual and sex differences in calls and the pathways of vocal ontogeny in the cheetah with relevant data on vocalization of other animals.

Cheetahs discriminate familiar and unfamiliar human voices

“…Sound perception and production plays an important role in cheetahs (social life and prey hunting). Cheetahs are felids with a semi-social (solitary females and social male coalitions) system 29 , a varied vocal repertoire 30 , 31 and supposedly a comparable audiogram to cats (e.g. Broad hearing frequency range: 48 Hz–85 kHz; as frequency increases the threshold SPL decreases to a minimum between 1 and 10 kHz and the value of the minimum is around −20 dB SPL) 32 , 33 .…”

“…According to Volodina 31 and Smirnova et al . 30 , their vocal repertoire is composed of 8 calls produced in a context specific way and that can grade into each other. The meow is the most common vocalization in cheetahs as it is in their domestic relatives 30 .…”

“… 30 , their vocal repertoire is composed of 8 calls produced in a context specific way and that can grade into each other. The meow is the most common vocalization in cheetahs as it is in their domestic relatives 30 . It is produced across context and encodes both sex and identity of the caller 30 .…”

“…The meow is the most common vocalization in cheetahs as it is in their domestic relatives 30 . It is produced across context and encodes both sex and identity of the caller 30 . On the contrary, growls, hisses and howls are specific to offensive contexts while chirrs are specific to mating and purrs are produced mainly during human contact 30 , 31 .…”

“…It is produced across context and encodes both sex and identity of the caller 30 . On the contrary, growls, hisses and howls are specific to offensive contexts while chirrs are specific to mating and purrs are produced mainly during human contact 30 , 31 . Cheetahs are commonly found in captivity where they are often hand-raised and human trained 34 .…”