Signals for parent-offspring recognition: a comparative analysis of the begging calls of cliff swallows and barn swallows

Medvin, Mandy B.; Stoddard, Philip K.; Beecher, Michael D.

doi:10.1006/anbe.1993.1105

Cited by 90 publications

(89 citation statements)

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“…Furthermore, social group size defines boundaries for other attributes of social complexity, such as mating systems or social networks [24]. Group size also directly affects the communicative landscape, since more individuals may be communicated with, followed, discriminated or ignored [5,[25][26][27]. Social group size is often straightforward to quantify.…”

Section: What Is Complexity?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Because studies quantifying vocal individuality are not common, this analysis required novel data, and eight species of ground-dwelling sciurid were thus captured, individually marked and recorded on multiple occasions. Individuality was calculated from acoustic traits using an information-theory metric developed by Beecher [5,73] and used in previous studies [25,27,52,74]. The individuality information statistic quantifies, in bits, the amount of individually specific information content present in a species' vocalizations.…”

Section: Demographic Complexity Drives Repertoire Size Evolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Evolving communicative complexity: insights from rodents and beyond

Pollard

Blumstein

2012

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

131

103

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Social living goes hand in hand with communication, but the details of this relationship are rarely simple. Complex communication may be described by attributes as diverse as a species' entire repertoire, signallers' individualistic signatures, or complex acoustic phenomena within single calls. Similarly, attributes of social complexity are diverse and may include group size, social role diversity, or networks of interactions and relationships. How these different attributes of social and communicative complexity co-evolve is an active question in behavioural ecology. Sciurid rodents (ground squirrels, prairie dogs and marmots) provide an excellent model system for studying these questions. Sciurid studies have found that demographic role complexity predicts alarm call repertoire size, while social group size predicts alarm call individuality. Along with other taxa, sciurids reveal an important insight: different attributes of sociality are linked to different attributes of communication. By breaking social and communicative complexity down to different attributes, focused studies can better untangle the underlying evolutionary relationships and move us closer to a comprehensive theory of how sociality and communication evolve.

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Section: What Is Complexity?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Demographic Complexity Drives Repertoire Size Evolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolving communicative complexity: insights from rodents and beyond

Pollard

Blumstein

2012

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

131

103

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“…In hermit crabs, Pagurus bernhardus (Laidre 2009), swamp sparrows, Melospiza georgiana (Ballentine et al 2008), and banded wrens, Pheugopedius pleurostictus (Vehrencamp et al 2007), certain visual or vocal displays are reliable predictors of an individual's subsequent aggressive behaviour, and recipients respond as if they know this relation. The begging calls of cliff swallows, Hirundo pyrrhonota, are individually distinctive and provide parents with information about individual identity; the begging calls of barn swallows, H. rustica, do not (Medvin et al 1993). In black-capped chickadees, Poecile atricapillus, acoustic features of the 'seet' and 'chick-a-dee' alarm calls are correlated with both the type of predator present and the degree of danger.…”

Section: Information In Animal Communicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The central importance of information in studies of animal communication

et al. 2010

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Keywords:animal communication animal signal information information transmission language meaningThe concept of information plays a central role in studies of animal communication. Animals' responses to the calls of different individuals, to food calls, alarm calls, and to signals that predict behaviour, all suggest that recipients acquire information from signals and that this information affects their response. Some scientists, however, want to replace the concept of information with one based on the 'manipulation' of recipients by signallers through the induction of nervous-system responses. Here we review both theory and data that argue against hypotheses based exclusively on manipulation or on a fixed, obligatory link between a signal's physical features and the responses it elicits. Results from dozens of studies indicate that calls with 'arousing' or 'aversive' features may also contain information that affects receivers' responses; that acoustically similar calls can elicit different responses; acoustically different calls can elicit similar responses; and 'eavesdropping' animals respond to the relationship instantiated by signal sequences. Animal signals encode a surprisingly rich amount of information. The content of this information can be studied scientifically.

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“…For instance, both group size and nature of parental care can influence the need for individually distinct vocalizations. Individuals that live in large groups such as barn swallows, Hirundo rustica , cliff swallows, H. pyrrhonota (Medvin et al 1993), and pinnipeds (Insley 2001) have more individually distinctive acoustic characteristics than individuals that live in smaller groups. One reason that individual identification is important in large groups is that mother and offspring must be able to find each other in order to stay in contact.…”

Section: Individual Identificationmentioning

confidence: 99%