Social calls of the little auk (
            <i>Alle alle</i>
            ) reflect body size and possibly partnership, but not sex

Osiecka, Anna N.; Briefer, Elodie F.; Kidawa, Dorota; Wojczulanis-Jakubas, Katarzyna

doi:10.1098/rsos.230845

Cited by 7 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…Note, however, that not all handled chicks vocalised-and among those who did, the call production rate differed greatly (Table 1). Chick sex was unknown in either group-however, note that little auk vocalisations are not affected by the caller's sex [23].…”

Section: Site Subjects and Set-upmentioning

confidence: 84%

Calls of the little auk (Alle alle) chicks reflect their behavioural contexts

Osiecka,

Briefer,

Kidawa

et al. 2024

PLoS ONE

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Animal vocalisations can often inform conspecifics about the behavioural context of production and the underlying affective states, hence revealing whether a situation should be approached or avoided. While this is particularly important for socially complex species, little is known about affective expression in wild colonial animals, and even less to about their young. We studied vocalisations of the little auk (Alle alle) chicks in the Hornsund breeding colony, Svalbard. Little auks are highly colonial seabirds, and adults convey complex behavioural contexts through their calls. We recorded chick calls during two contexts of opposite affective valence: handing by a human, and while they interact with their parents inside the nest. Using permuted discriminant function analysis and a series of linear mixed models, we examined the effect of the production context/associated affective valence on the acoustic parameters of those calls. Calls were reliably classified to their context, with over 97% accuracy. Calls uttered during handling had higher mean entropy, fundamental frequency, as well as lower spectral centre of gravity and a less steep spectral slope compared to calls produced during interactions with a parent inside the nest. The individuality of handling calls, assessed by information content, was lower than the individuality of calls uttered in the nest. These findings suggest that seabird chicks can effectively communicate behavioural/affective contexts through calls, conveying socially important messages early in development. Our results are mostly in line with emotional expression patterns observed across taxa, supporting their evolutionary continuity.

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Section: Site Subjects and Set-upmentioning

confidence: 84%

Calls of the little auk (Alle alle) chicks reflect their behavioural contexts

Osiecka,

Briefer,

Kidawa

et al. 2024

PLoS ONE

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show abstract

“…2024a), which has been shown here to travel over 1 km. However, little auks’ vocal identity can be somehow diluted when considering some parameters, since nesting partners match certain parameters of their calls, such as formant dispersion (Osiecka et al . 2023b).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2023a), and their calls can carry a richness of static (Kidawa et al . 2023, Osiecka et al . 2023b, 2024a) and dynamic (Osiecka et al .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2023b, 2024a) and dynamic (Osiecka et al . 2023a, 2024b) information. The most complex call of the little auk repertoire, the classic call, is a long, compound signal with apparent formants, composed of a series of three types of syllables (Fig.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2023a). While it carries no information on the caller’s sex or size, nesting partners tend to match certain properties of their classic calls (Osiecka et al . 2023b).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Long distance calls: negligible information loss of seabird social vocalisations over propagation down to the hearing threshold

Osiecka,

Bryndza,

Briefer

et al. 2024

Preprint

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How well does the information contained in vocal signals travel through the environment? To assess the efficiency of information transfer in little auk calls over distance, we selected two social call types with the highest potential for individuality coding among the social call types of the species. Using available recordings of known individuals, we calculated the apparent source levels, with apparent maximum peak sound pressure level (ASPL) of 63 dB re 20 uPa at 1 m for both call types. Further, we created a sound propagation model using meteorological data collected in the vicinity of the little auk colony in Hornsund, Spitsbergen. Using this model, we simulated call propagation up to the putative hearing threshold of the species, calculated to equal ASPL of signals propagated to roughly one kilometre. Those propagated calls were then used in a permuted discriminant function analysis, support vector machine models, and Beecher's information statistic, to investigate whether transmission loss will affect the retention of individual information of the signal. Calls could be correctly classified to individuals above chance level independently of the distance, down to and over the putative physiological hearing threshold. Interestingly, the information capacity of the signal did not decrease with propagation. While this study touches on signal properties purely and cannot provide evidence of the actual use by the animals, it shows that little auk signals can travel extreme distances with negligible information loss. For the animals, this could mean that they can recognize calls of the members of their social networks as far as those calls are actually audible, and support the hypothesis that vocalisations could facilitate long-distance communication in the species.

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Vocal interactions of breeding partners predict duration of incubation bout in an Artic seabird

Devogel,

Le Fur,

Grissot

et al. 2024

J Ornithol

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In species with biparental care, coordination of parental activities can have important fitness consequences. However, specific behavioral mechanism allowing the coordination of breeding partners remains largely unexplored. Prevalence of biparental care in seabirds makes this group particularly interesting for investigation of behavioral underpinnings of parental coordination. Here, we examined vocal behavior at the nest site of breeding partners and its role in shaping their parental share during incubation in the little auk (Alle alle). We evaluated two hypotheses related to the mechanisms involved in parental coordination: (1) behavioral adjustment, where a parent adjusts its effort according to the preceding effort of its partner and (2) vocal negotiation, where effort is adjusted based on information exchanged during the preceding vocal interaction. We found that little auk partners equally share their incubation time, although, duration of nest attendance is highly variable. No immediate reciprocity between partners in the time allocated to parental activity was observed as predicted by behavioral adjustment. However, nest attendance appeared to be related to the vocal interaction between partners during turn-taking. The duration of a given attendance was positively associated to the pair’s vocal activity and amount of vocal overlap occurring during turn-taking at the nest. Our results suggest a role of vocalization for coordinating between breeding pairs, providing a potential mechanism for the communication of information enabling this complex interaction.

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Social calls of the little auk ( Alle alle ) reflect body size and possibly partnership, but not sex

Cited by 7 publications

References 58 publications

Calls of the little auk (Alle alle) chicks reflect their behavioural contexts

Calls of the little auk (Alle alle) chicks reflect their behavioural contexts

Long distance calls: negligible information loss of seabird social vocalisations over propagation down to the hearing threshold

Vocal interactions of breeding partners predict duration of incubation bout in an Artic seabird

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