Mutual mother–pup vocal recognition in the highly colonial Cape fur seal: evidence of discrimination of calls with a high acoustic similarity

Martin, Mathilde; Gridley, Tess; Fourie, Dorothy; Elwen, Simon Harvey; Charrier, Isabelle

doi:10.1007/s10071-022-01627-3

Cited by 4 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 53 publications

(68 reference statements)

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“…The variable ‘pup check’ is defined as a female looking at and/or sniffing her own pup. From previous observations and the results reported by Martin and colleagues [27], very young pups (i.e. a few hours or days old) are not able to locate the sound source accurately.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…Indeed, during the broadcast of their mother's calls, we noticed that they look around without directing their eyes towards the loudspeaker. Furthermore, they are not very mobile and never move towards the loudspeaker as pups of several weeks of age can do [27]. In this study, the response variables for pups were thus latency to call(s) and number of calls.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Stimuli (i.e. playback track) were created based on a previous study on Cape fur seal mother-pup vocal recognition [27]. Playback stimuli were prepared on-site from a laptop, using Avisoft SAS Lab Pro software (R. Specht, version 5.2.14, Avisoft Bioacoustics, Berlin, Germany).…”

Section: (C) Playback Stimulimentioning

confidence: 99%

“…when the female returns after a foraging trip at sea or after a short swim for thermoregulation, and short-range communication when both are gathered in the colony [25]. Previous studies showed that PAC and FAC display a high degree of individual stereotypy [26] and are involved in a mutual vocal recognition mechanism between the mother and her young [27].

Figure 1Behavioural responses of mothers and pups to playback experiments conducted to assess the timing of the onset of the mother–pup vocal recognition.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Early onset of postnatal individual vocal recognition in a highly colonial mammal species

et al. 2022

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Mother–young vocal recognition is widespread in mammals. The features of vocal recognition are known to be shaped by the ecological constraints faced by each species. In some species, a rapid establishment of mother–young vocal recognition is crucial for offspring's survival. However, knowledge of the precise features of this recognition system, especially the timing of the onset in the first hours after birth, is often lacking. Here we show that Cape fur seal females can recognize their pup's voice 2–4 h after parturition and that pups develop this aptitude 4–6 h after birth. This study is the first to investigate this mechanism in a wild and free-ranging mammal from only 2 h after birth. We report the fastest establishment of mother–young vocal recognition for any mammalian species, including humans, described to date. Such early vocal identification in pups suggests an in utero vocal imprinting. These findings highlight the synergistic role of environmental constraints and biological traits in optimizing the timing of individual vocal recognition onset in vertebrates.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 92%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: (C) Playback Stimulimentioning

confidence: 99%

Figure 1Behavioural responses of mothers and pups to playback experiments conducted to assess the timing of the onset of the mother–pup vocal recognition.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Early onset of postnatal individual vocal recognition in a highly colonial mammal species

et al. 2022

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“…如种群密度、幼仔的扩散能力 (Sébe et al, 2008;Martin et al, 2022)。研究表明, 群居哺乳动物具有母幼识别的机制 (Volodin et al, 2017;Sibiryakova et al, 2018;Nuñez & Rubenstein, 2020;Martin et al, 2022), 因其具有较高的种群密度 (Masataka, 1985;Torriani et al, 2006;Blank & Yang, 2017;Charrier et al, 2017), 并且部分物种的幼仔具有较强的扩散能力 (Sébe et al, 2008;Martin et al, 2022) 野外, 大熊猫母兽产后立即进入2-3周的禁食期 (Lü et al, 1994;Zhu et al, 2001), 并将主要精力用于照顾幼仔 (Zhu et al, 2001) 和个体间变异系数(CV b ), 计算公式如下:…”

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Giant panda mothers can discriminate own neonates from others based on their squalls

Zhang¹,

Cheng²,

Zeng³

et al. 2023

Biodiversity Science

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Background & Aim: In many group-living mammal species, mothers can recognize calls from their own offspring, but little research has been done in solitary species. The giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) is a solitary species, yet there is high competition for breeding dens and an overlap in giant panda territory. Competition between pregnant giant panda females for denning becomes strained in the wild because the availability of old tree caves has decreased in recent years. Giant panda neonates are highly altricial, weighing little more than 0.1% of the adult weight, and rely on constant maternal care for growth and survival. To elicit maternal care, 0-45-day old neonates use vocalizations to express distress and their physiological needs. Here, we use the giant panda as a model to investigate if mothers can discriminate calls of their own cubs from those of other cubs. Methods: In this study, we first investigated if neonate squalls have the potential of encoding an individual-specific acoustic signature, and then examined whether mothers can discriminate squalls of their own from all other neonates byplaying the audio recordings of their squalls to the mothers.Results: Analyzing results based on 274 call samples from six cubs revealed that 14 out of 17 analyzed acoustic parameters of squalls have the potential for individual identity coding (PIC > 1), indicating a potential of an individual acoustic signature. Further discriminant analysis revealed that 78.5% of the squalls were correctly paired to the calling individual. The playback experiments demonstrated that mothers responded to squalls of their own neonates significantly more frequently than to squalls of other neonates (P = 0.008), indicating that mothers can identify their own offspring from their squalls. Conclusions:The squall calls of newborn pandas likely encode an individual acoustic signature, and panda mothers can distinguish the acoustic structure of squalls of their own neonates from that of other cubs. The results of this study provide valuable insights for the ex-situ conservation and breeding management of giant pandas in captivity and are conducive to improving the survival rate of giant panda cubs in captivity.

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Isochrony in barks of Cape fur seal (Arctocephalus pusillus pusillus) pups and adults

Osiecka,

Fearey,

Ravignani

et al. 2024

Ecology and Evolution

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Animal vocal communication often relies on call sequences. The temporal patterns of such sequences can be adjusted to other callers, follow complex rhythmic structures or exhibit a metronome‐like pattern (i.e., isochronous). How regular are the temporal patterns in animal signals, and what influences their precision? If present, are rhythms already there early in ontogeny? Here, we describe an exploratory study of Cape fur seal (Arctocephalus pusillus pusillus) barks—a vocalisation type produced across many pinniped species in rhythmic, percussive bouts. This study is the first quantitative description of barking in Cape fur seal pups. We analysed the rhythmic structures of spontaneous barking bouts of pups and adult females from the breeding colony in Cape Cross, Namibia. Barks of adult females exhibited isochrony, that is they were produced at fairly regular points in time. Instead, intervals between pup barks were more variable, that is skipping a bark in the isochronous series occasionally. In both age classes, beat precision, that is how well the barks followed a perfect template, was worse when barking at higher rates. Differences could be explained by physiological factors, such as respiration or arousal. Whether, and how, isochrony develops in this species remains an open question. This study provides evidence towards a rhythmic production of barks in Cape fur seal pups and lays the groundwork for future studies to investigate the development of rhythm using multidimensional metrics.

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Mutual mother–pup vocal recognition in the highly colonial Cape fur seal: evidence of discrimination of calls with a high acoustic similarity

Cited by 4 publications

References 53 publications

Early onset of postnatal individual vocal recognition in a highly colonial mammal species

Early onset of postnatal individual vocal recognition in a highly colonial mammal species

Giant panda mothers can discriminate own neonates from others based on their squalls

Isochrony in barks of Cape fur seal (Arctocephalus pusillus pusillus) pups and adults

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