Estimating the distance to a source of sound: mechanisms and adaptations for long-range communication

Naguib, Marc; Wiley, R. Haven

doi:10.1006/anbe.2001.1860

Cited by 259 publications

(189 citation statements)

References 87 publications

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“…considering that sound from an acoustic source attenuates in space mainly due to the atmospheric absorption (exponential term), and the spherical spreading of the intensity (4πr −2 contribution), and neglecting secondary effects [40]. P 0 may be understood as the power of the sound at a distance of 1 m from the source.…”

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confidence: 99%

Optimizing the Search for Resources by Sharing Information: Mongolian Gazelles as a Case Study

et al. 2013

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We investigate the relationship between communication and search efficiency in a biological context by proposing a model of Brownian searchers with long-range pairwise interactions. After a general study of the properties of the model, we show an application to the particular case of acoustic communication among Mongolian gazelles, for which data are available, searching for good habitat areas. Using Monte Carlo simulations and density equations, our results point out that the search is optimal (i.e. the mean first hitting time among searchers is minimum) at intermediate scales of communication, showing that both an excess and a lack of information may worsen it. [7,8], and to pool information on resource locations when no single individual is sufficiently knowledgeable [9][10][11][12][13]. Communication among individuals frequently leads to group formation [14], which often has clear direct benefits such as reducing individual vulnerability to predators. Such strategies may, however, also have important incidental benefits. For example, an individual that has found a good foraging patch might try to attract conspecifics to reduce its risk of predation, but also provides its conspecifics with information on the location of good forage, thus increasing the foraging efficiency of those responding to the call.A variety of mammalian species are known to communicate acoustically over distances of up to several kilometers [3,15,16], but while group formation via vocalizations has been well studied [3,17,18], incidental benefits such as increased foraging efficiency have received little research attention. In contrast, research on foraging efficiency has focused largely on independent individuals [19][20][21][22][23][24][25], or on comparing foraging behavior across species [26]. In addition, recent theoretical work [27] has focused on the statistics of a population of independent random walkers, but an interaction mechanism, and its influence on search efficiency, has not been thoroughly studied. To date, very few models have examined the potential effect that long-distance communication [28]

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confidence: 99%

Optimizing the Search for Resources by Sharing Information: Mongolian Gazelles as a Case Study

et al. 2013

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“…Mammals make use of many of these same cues when judging auditory distance (Kolarik, Moore, Zahorik, Cirstea, & Pardhan, 2016). Some cues provide information only about the relative distance to a source, whereas others can provide more specific information about the absolute distance (Naguib & Wiley, 2001). In some cases, acoustic cues to distance may be useful only within a familiar environment (Nelson & Stoddard, 1998).…”

Section: Cues To Singer Distancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…For a bird to be able to exclude other birds from a specific area, it must be able to judge when those birds are intruding -this often requires that the territory defender estimate other birds' distances based on received sounds. Birds use several acoustic cues to do this, including variations in overall amplitude, differential spectral attenuation, and signal distortions associated with reverberation (reviewed by Naguib & Wiley, 2001). Some acoustic features of songs, such as rapid trills, degrade rapidly as they propagate, suggesting that these features may function, at least in part, to provide information about a vocalizing bird's distance from any listening birds (Naguib, 2003;Wiley & Richards, 1978).…”

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Chickadee songs provide hidden clues to singers’ locations

Mercado¹,

Wisniewski²,

McIntosh³

et al. 2017

AB&C

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“…The elevation coordinate seems important mainly at short distances and probably does not require a high degree of accuracy but nothing is known about mechanisms of its computation except for auditory specialists such as the Barn Owl Tyto alba (Konishi 1993). In contrast, much behavioral work has recently been performed on elucidating the accuracy and the cues by which birds compute the distance coordinate, a process known as 'ranging' (review by Naguib and Wiley 2001). Sound signal degradation with distance seems to play a major role in ranging but quantifica-268 OLE N. LARSEN tion of sound degradation has rarely been correlated with perceptual abilities and in certain types of habitat birds may use a simple measure of sound intensity of low frequency sounds as the ranging cue (Nelson 2002(Nelson , 2003.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…From a naïve point of view there are two major possible sources of uncertainty: (1) the listening bird's directional hearing is inaccurate because of limitations in the directional sensitivity of the ears and/or in the computational circuits of the brain; (2) the acoustical cues reaching the bird provide inaccurate information about the location. Below we shall investigate only the inaccuracy in computation of the directional coordinates, while interested readers are referred to Naguib and Wiley (2001) for a discussion of the computation of the distance coordinate.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does the environment constrain avian sound localization?

Larsen

2004

An. Acad. Bras. Ciênc.

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A bird needs to keep track not only of social interactions of conspecifics but also of their changing locations in space by determining their directions and distances. Current knowledge of accuracy in the computation of sound source location by birds is still insufficient, partly because physiological mechanisms of few species are studied in well defined laboratory settings, while field studies are performed in a variety of species and complex environments. Velocity gradients and reverberating surfaces may conceivably induce inaccuracy in sound source location (mainly elevation) by distorting the directional cues. However, most birds possess an inherently directional pressure difference receiver, which enhances the directional cues (mainly azimuth), and a computational mechanism in their auditory pathways to suppress echoes of redirected sound.

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Estimating the distance to a source of sound: mechanisms and adaptations for long-range communication

Cited by 259 publications

References 87 publications

Optimizing the Search for Resources by Sharing Information: Mongolian Gazelles as a Case Study

Optimizing the Search for Resources by Sharing Information: Mongolian Gazelles as a Case Study

Chickadee songs provide hidden clues to singers’ locations

Does the environment constrain avian sound localization?

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