The role of neighbour proximity and context on meerkat close call acoustic structure

Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskrift › Tidsskriftartikel › Forskning › fagfællebedømt

Dokumenter

  • Fulltext

    Forlagets udgivne version, 663 KB, PDF-dokument

In many animal species, including humans, producer arousal state is considered a key modifier of vocal production and structure. Encoding of affective arousal state in vocalizations provides a rapid means of information transfer about an individual's internal state, potentially reflecting its response to external stimuli. Meerkats, Suricata suricatta, are a highly vocal species. They use close calls to maintain group cohesion while foraging. Due to their patchily distributed prey, motivation for neighbour proximity varies; being too close results in competition (increased arousal–aggression), while too far results in risks of losing the group and predation threats (increased arousal–fear). We investigated how neighbour proximity and behavioural, social and environmental context influence the acoustic structure of wild meerkats’ close calls. We found little effect of neighbour distance on the majority of the acoustic parameters measured, although close calls were longer and had a higher fundamental frequency when in very close proximity. However, there was a consistent effect of the behavioural context in which the call was given across several acoustic parameters. Overall, meerkat close calls potentially convey information on current behaviour, highlighting a potential mechanism in the diversification of acoustic signals.
OriginalsprogEngelsk
TidsskriftAnimal Behaviour
Vol/bind212
Sider (fra-til)113-126
Antal sider14
ISSN0003-3472
DOI
StatusUdgivet - 2024

Bibliografisk note

Funding Information:
We thank the Kalahari Research Trust and the Northern Cape Conservation Authority for research permission (FAUNA 0930/2022). We also thank Walter Jubber and Tim Vink for organizing the field site and database, as well as the managers Bieke Maex, Doli Borah and Laurie Johnson and volunteers of the Kalahari Meerkat Project for organizing, providing support and helping to collect the life history data and maintain habituation of the meerkats. We thank Tim Clutton-Brock for access to the long-term data. We also thank the members of the Communication and Cognition group in Zurich for insightful discussions and support, in particular Megan Wyman and Maxime Garcia for guidance on acoustic analysis. I.D. was funded by the NCCR Evolving Language, Swiss National Science Foundation Agreement (Grant number: 180888). E.F.B. was supported by the University of Copenhagen and a Semper Ardens: Accelerate Fellowship from the Carlsberg Foundation (CF20-0538). M.B.M. was supported by the University of Zurich. The long-term field site KMP was financed by University of Cambridge and Zurich, and the MAVA Foundation. This article has relied on records of individual identities and/or life histories maintained by the KMP, which has been supported financially by the European Research Council (Grant Number: 294494 to T.H.C.B.) since 1 July 2012) and the University of Zurich, as well as logistically by the Mammal Research Institute of the University of Pretoria.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Author(s)

ID: 391160044