Early development of vocal interaction rules in a duetting songbird

Rivera‐Cáceres, Karla D.; Quirós‐Guerrero, Esmeralda; Araya‐Salas, Marcelo; Templeton, Christopher N.; Searcy, William A.

doi:10.1098/rsos.171791

Cited by 30 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…we have recorded juveniles singing highly developed songs alongside their parents following their duet code, which suggests parents are indeed vocal tutors of their offspring. This has also been documented in superb-fairy wrens, Malurus cyaneus, where fledglings acquire song elements from their mothers and social fathers (Evans and Kleindorfer 2016), and in canebrake wrens, where juveniles improved their temporal coordination and duet code adherence while duetting with their parents over time (Rivera-Cáceres et al 2018). An alternative explanation for the high levels of phrase and duet type sharing documented in this study could be that repertoire sharing allows individuals and pairs to song match or repertoire match in order to escalate or de-escalate aggression during agonistic interactions (Nordby et al 1999, Beecher andBrenowitz 2005).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 75%

Evidence of repertoire sharing and stability despite a high turnover rate in a duetting neotropical wren

Quirós‐Guerrero

Janeiro

Cresswell

et al. 2020

Journal of Avian Biology

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In songbirds, the spatial pattern of song sharing among individuals is influenced by the song learning and dispersal strategies within each species. In birds where females and males sing and create joint acoustic displays (duets), the processes defining the patterns of song sharing become more complex as there might be different selection pressures shaping the behaviour of each sex. To provide further insight into the vocal development and the dispersal strategy of duetting tropical species, we investigated the patterns of individual and pair repertoire sharing, as well as the stability of these repertoires, in a colour‐marked population of riverside wrens, Cantorchilus semibadius, located in the Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica. Using data collected over a five‐year period, we found considerable variation in the sharing levels of phrase and duet type repertoires among neighbouring individuals coupled with a general decline of repertoire sharing as distance increased between birds’ territories. These results are consistent with a pattern predicted in age‐restricted learners that establish preferentially near their tutors. Furthermore, we found no evidence of individuals changing their phrase type repertoires over time, including after remating events. Duet type repertoires were also stable when pairs remained together. However, we observed a surprisingly high turnover rate. When individuals remated, even though the majority of the previous duet type repertoire remained, several new duet types were included. Taken together, our findings suggest that riverside wrens might create their individual repertoires by copying their same‐sex parent and neighbouring individuals before dispersal. Additionally, we speculate that even though birds were able to create new duet types after changing partners, a substantial portion of their duet type repertoire might also be copied from their parents and neighbouring pairs during the initial critical period of song learning.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 75%

Evidence of repertoire sharing and stability despite a high turnover rate in a duetting neotropical wren

Quirós‐Guerrero

Janeiro

Cresswell

et al. 2020

Journal of Avian Biology

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“…Avian duets show a high diversity in complexity and in precision of coordination between the partners’ vocal emissions. While in some bird species vocalizations from both duet partners temporally overlap to a variable degree 2–4 , other birds produce vocal duets in which the partners’ contributions alternate almost perfectly 5–7 . Growing evidence suggests that alternating vocalizations in avian duets are a direct result of the partners’ effort to avoid signal overlap 2,8 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Duets recorded in the wild reveal that interindividually coordinated motor control enables cooperative behavior

et al. 2019

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Many organisms coordinate rhythmic motor actions with those of a partner to generate cooperative social behavior such as duet singing. The neural mechanisms that enable rhythmic interindividual coordination of motor actions are unknown. Here we investigate the neural basis of vocal duetting behavior by using an approach that enables simultaneous recordings of individual vocalizations and multiunit vocal premotor activity in songbird pairs ranging freely in their natural habitat. We find that in the duet-initiating bird, the onset of the partner’s contribution to the duet triggers a change in rhythm in the periodic neural discharges that are exclusively locked to the initiating bird’s own vocalizations. The resulting interindividually synchronized neural activity pattern elicits vocalizations that perfectly alternate between partners in the ongoing song. We suggest that rhythmic cooperative behavior requires exact interindividual coordination of premotor neural activity, which might be achieved by integration of sensory information originating from the interacting partner.

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“…Vocal exchange is a phenomenon suitable to analyze the association between the acoustic variation of contact calls and listeners’ responses: it allows the proper identification of listeners (i.e., second callers), and two types of responses, the vocal and the behavioral (e.g., orienting behaviors: [16–18]). Among the nonhuman primate species that exchange calls (e.g., Callithrix jacchus : [16]; Macaca fuscata : [17]; Cantorchilus zeledoni : [18]), it is well accepted that spider monkeys ( Ateles geoffroyi ) exchange long-distance contact calls termed “whinnies” [9]. In our previous study, we found that whinnies have a graded acoustic structure, and a high amount of acoustic variation related to the caller’s immediate behavior (e.g., scanning, looking toward the observer) and separation distance between callers [19].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acoustic variation of spider monkey (Ateles geoffroyi) contact calls is related to caller isolation and affects listeners’ responses

2019

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Group living animals produce vocalizations denominated “contact calls” to maintain contact with out-of-sight group members. These calls have been shown to vary with caller identity and distance to potential listeners. However, it is not clear whether the acoustic variation of contact calls is related to caller social isolation (e.g., inside or outside a subgroup) and listeners’ responses that can be helpful to maintain contact. Here, we addressed these questions in spider monkeys ( Ateles geoffroyi ), a Neotropical primate that exchanges contact calls denominated “whinnies”, which show graded variation related to caller immediate behavior and distance between callers. Using 566 whinnies produced by 35 free-ranging adult spider monkeys recorded at ≤ 20 m from microphones, we first analyzed whether the acoustic variation of spontaneous whinnies (i.e., whinnies that are not responses to previous whinnies) is related to caller social isolation or whether acoustic variation is related to the likelihood of eliciting a response whinny from another individual. Secondly, we assessed whether listeners’ responses (i.e., time to respond vocally, acoustic characteristics of response whinnies, orienting behaviors) were related to the acoustic variation of previous whinnies. Our study revealed that callers that were outside a subgroup produced whinnies with a lower fundamental frequency (F0), which travels longer distances, and increases the likelihood of producing a response whinny. Moreover, listeners (i.e., responders) responded faster to lower F0 whinnies. However, the acoustic variation (i.e., F0 variation) in response whinnies was better explained by the separation distance between callers, than by the acoustic variation of the previous whinny. Overall, our results suggest that whinny variation facilitates vocal contact to callers that are outside a subgroup, and that context and whinny variation affect listeners’ responses.

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Early development of vocal interaction rules in a duetting songbird

Cited by 30 publications

References 45 publications

Evidence of repertoire sharing and stability despite a high turnover rate in a duetting neotropical wren

Evidence of repertoire sharing and stability despite a high turnover rate in a duetting neotropical wren

Duets recorded in the wild reveal that interindividually coordinated motor control enables cooperative behavior

Acoustic variation of spider monkey (Ateles geoffroyi) contact calls is related to caller isolation and affects listeners’ responses

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