ALARM CALLS OF THE EUROPEAN GROUND SQUIRRELSPERMOPHILUS CITELLUSAND THE TAURUS GROUND SQUIRRELS. TAURENSISENCODE INFORMATION ABOUT CALLER IDENTITY

The potential to encode sex, age, and individual identity in the alarm calls of three species of Marmotinae

“…Unlikely, individuality is remarkably stable across years in calls of eagle owls Bubo bubo (Lengagne 2001 ; Grava et al 2008 ) and in the duets of red-crowned cranes Grus japonensis (Klenova et al 2009 ). Studying the stability of individual acoustic signatures in alarm calls should be extended on a wide range of species of ground-dwelling sciurids, especially in relation to probable use of acoustic fingerprinting as a non-invasive tool for censuses in the field (Terry et al 2005 ; Blumstein and Fernández-Juricic 2010 ; Schneiderová and Policht 2010 ; Pollard et al 2010 ).…”

“…Besides their primary functions of warning conspecifics of predators (Sherman 1977 ; Blumstein 2007 ), or informing predators that they have been detected (Woodland et al 1980 ; Sherman 1985 ; Hasson 1991 ; Shelley and Blumstein 2005 ; Digweed and Rendall 2009a , b ), alarm calls of ground-dwelling sciurids may provide concomitant information about the caller’s sex, age, and identity. Individual-specific alarm calls were reported for steppe marmots Marmota bobak (Nikol’skii and Suchanova 1994 ), Belding’s ground squirrels Spermophilus beldingi (Leger et al 1984 ; McCowan and Hooper 2002 ), yellow-bellied marmots Marmota flaviventris (Blumstein and Munos 2005 ), speckled ground squirrels Spermophilus suslicus (Volodin 2005 ; Matrosova et al 2009 ), yellow ground squirrels Spermophilus fulvus (Matrosova et al 2010a , b ), European ground squirrels Spermophilus citellus , and Taurus ground squirrels Spermophilus taurensis (Schneiderová and Policht 2010 ). In Richardson’s ground squirrels Spermophilus richardsonii (Hare 1998 ) and yellow-bellied marmots (Blumstein and Daniel 2004 ), playbacks demonstrated the ability to distinguish among calls of familiar and unfamiliar individuals.…”

Individual-based acoustic variation of the alarm calls in the long-tailed ground squirrel

“…Vocalization in both Eurasian [ 1 – 7 ] and North American ground squirrels [ 8 – 12 ] has been intensively studied, especially during the last decade. Even though the long-tailed ground squirrel Urocitellus undulatus is a species with a Palaearctic distribution, its phylogenetic position (based on mitochondrial cytochrome b sequences) has been found within the Nearctic clade, and thus Nearctic ground squirrels are this species' closest relatives in comparison with other ground squirrels from the Palaearctic region [ 13 ].…”

“…Variation in alarm calls of Eurasian ground squirrels has been studied in the speckled ground squirrel Spermophilus suslicus [ 6 , 17 – 20 ], yellow ground squirrel S. fulvus [ 6 , 17 , 19 , 21 , 22 ], European ground squirrel S. citellus [ 1 – 3 , 5 , 19 , 23 , 24 ], Taurus ground squirrel S. taurensis [ 1 – 3 , 23 ], Anatolian ground squirrel S. xanthoprymnus [ 3 , 23 , 25 ], red-cheeked ground squirrel S. erythrogenys [ 5 ], russet ground squirrel S. major [ 26 , 27 ], Caucasian mountain S. musicus [ 25 ], little ground squirrel S. pygmaeus [ 25 , 28 ], S. alaschanicus [ 25 ], Arctic ground squirrel Urocitellus parryii [ 25 ], grey marmot Marmota baibacina [ 29 , 30 ] and Steppe marmot Marmota bobak [ 31 ]. The basic description of the alarm calls produced by ground squirrels inhabiting the Russian and Asian area included comparative study containing the following species: Urocitellus undulatus, U. parryii, Spermophilus xanthopyrmnus, S. musicus, S. pygmaeus, S. alaschanicus, S. suslicus, S. relictus, S. citellus, S. erythrogenys, S. major, S. fulvus and S. rally [ 30 , 32 ].…”

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

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