DOI 10.1007/s00300-007-0262-6ORIGINAL PAPER Acoustic communication in the Kittiwake Rissa tridactyla: potential cues for sexual and individual signatures in long calls

• Main Authors: Thierry Aubin, Nicolas Mathevon, Vincent Staszewski, Thierry Boulinier
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Barents Sea; Hornøya; rissa tridactyla
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.613.2999; http://www.cb.u-psud.fr/pdf/Aubin_PolarBio_2007.pdf

Abstract Sex and individual recognition systems vary among species and can have various functions in diVerent contexts. In order to determine the basis of identiWcation by voice in the Kittiwake (Rissa tridac-tyla), the greeting calls of 32 individuals (18 males and 14 females) were recorded in May–June 2004 on the Kittiwake colony of Hornøya island (Barents sea) and analysed. On the basis of coeYcient of vari-ation calculations and discriminant analyses, we show (1) that calls are sexually dimorphic and that the dimorphism is mainly based on the value of the fundamental frequency, and (2) that calls are individ-ually distinct, individuality being due to a complex of temporal and frequency parameters located in diVer-ent parts of the signal. This coding strategy is dis-cussed in the context of the colonial breeding habitat of the species.