Social calls of the little auk ( Alle alle) reflect body size and possibly partnership, but not sex
Source–filter theory posits that an individual's size and vocal tract length are reflected in the parameters of their calls. In species that mate assortatively, this could result in vocal similarity. In the context of mate selection, this would mean that animals could listen in to find a partne...
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crroyalsociety:10.1098/rsos.230845 2024-06-02T07:54:50+00:00 Social calls of the little auk ( Alle alle) reflect body size and possibly partnership, but not sex Osiecka, Anna N. Briefer, Elodie F. Kidawa, Dorota Wojczulanis-Jakubas, Katarzyna University of Gdansk Narodowe Centrum Nauki 2023 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.230845 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.230845 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsos.230845 en eng The Royal Society https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ Royal Society Open Science volume 10, issue 9 ISSN 2054-5703 journal-article 2023 crroyalsociety https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.230845 2024-05-07T14:16:39Z Source–filter theory posits that an individual's size and vocal tract length are reflected in the parameters of their calls. In species that mate assortatively, this could result in vocal similarity. In the context of mate selection, this would mean that animals could listen in to find a partner that sounds—and therefore is—similar to them. We investigated the social calls of the little auk ( Alle alle ), a highly vocal seabird mating assortatively, using vocalizations produced inside 15 nests by known individuals. Source- and filter-related acoustic parameters were used in linear mixed models testing the possible impact of body size. A principal component analysis followed by a permuted discriminant function analysis tested the effect of sex. Additionally, randomization procedures tested whether partners are more vocally similar than random birds. There was a significant effect of size on the mean fundamental frequency of a simple call, but not on parameters of a multisyllable call with apparent formants. Neither sex nor partnership influenced the calls—there was, however, a tendency to match certain parameters between partners. This indicates that vocal cues are at best weak indicators of size, and other factors likely play a role in mate selection. Article in Journal/Newspaper Alle alle little auk The Royal Society Royal Society Open Science 10 9 |
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Open Polar |
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The Royal Society |
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crroyalsociety |
language |
English |
description |
Source–filter theory posits that an individual's size and vocal tract length are reflected in the parameters of their calls. In species that mate assortatively, this could result in vocal similarity. In the context of mate selection, this would mean that animals could listen in to find a partner that sounds—and therefore is—similar to them. We investigated the social calls of the little auk ( Alle alle ), a highly vocal seabird mating assortatively, using vocalizations produced inside 15 nests by known individuals. Source- and filter-related acoustic parameters were used in linear mixed models testing the possible impact of body size. A principal component analysis followed by a permuted discriminant function analysis tested the effect of sex. Additionally, randomization procedures tested whether partners are more vocally similar than random birds. There was a significant effect of size on the mean fundamental frequency of a simple call, but not on parameters of a multisyllable call with apparent formants. Neither sex nor partnership influenced the calls—there was, however, a tendency to match certain parameters between partners. This indicates that vocal cues are at best weak indicators of size, and other factors likely play a role in mate selection. |
author2 |
University of Gdansk Narodowe Centrum Nauki |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Osiecka, Anna N. Briefer, Elodie F. Kidawa, Dorota Wojczulanis-Jakubas, Katarzyna |
spellingShingle |
Osiecka, Anna N. Briefer, Elodie F. Kidawa, Dorota Wojczulanis-Jakubas, Katarzyna Social calls of the little auk ( Alle alle) reflect body size and possibly partnership, but not sex |
author_facet |
Osiecka, Anna N. Briefer, Elodie F. Kidawa, Dorota Wojczulanis-Jakubas, Katarzyna |
author_sort |
Osiecka, Anna N. |
title |
Social calls of the little auk ( Alle alle) reflect body size and possibly partnership, but not sex |
title_short |
Social calls of the little auk ( Alle alle) reflect body size and possibly partnership, but not sex |
title_full |
Social calls of the little auk ( Alle alle) reflect body size and possibly partnership, but not sex |
title_fullStr |
Social calls of the little auk ( Alle alle) reflect body size and possibly partnership, but not sex |
title_full_unstemmed |
Social calls of the little auk ( Alle alle) reflect body size and possibly partnership, but not sex |
title_sort |
social calls of the little auk ( alle alle) reflect body size and possibly partnership, but not sex |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.230845 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.230845 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsos.230845 |
genre |
Alle alle little auk |
genre_facet |
Alle alle little auk |
op_source |
Royal Society Open Science volume 10, issue 9 ISSN 2054-5703 |
op_rights |
https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.230845 |
container_title |
Royal Society Open Science |
container_volume |
10 |
container_issue |
9 |
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1800743824368074752 |