Mother Vocal Recognition in Antarctic Fur Seal Arctocephalus gazella Pups: A Two-Step Process.
In otariids, mother's recognition by pups is essential to their survival since females nurse exclusively their own young and can be very aggressive towards non-kin. Antarctic fur seal, Arctocephalus gazella, come ashore to breed and form dense colonies. During the 4-month lactation period, fema...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:372b4e298dc34c1488d3c861936b19c9 2023-05-15T13:47:05+02:00 Mother Vocal Recognition in Antarctic Fur Seal Arctocephalus gazella Pups: A Two-Step Process. Thierry Aubin Pierre Jouventin Isabelle Charrier 2015-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0134513 https://doaj.org/article/372b4e298dc34c1488d3c861936b19c9 EN eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4558088?pdf=render https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0134513 https://doaj.org/article/372b4e298dc34c1488d3c861936b19c9 PLoS ONE, Vol 10, Iss 9, p e0134513 (2015) Medicine R Science Q article 2015 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0134513 2022-12-31T14:53:06Z In otariids, mother's recognition by pups is essential to their survival since females nurse exclusively their own young and can be very aggressive towards non-kin. Antarctic fur seal, Arctocephalus gazella, come ashore to breed and form dense colonies. During the 4-month lactation period, females alternate foraging trips at sea with suckling period ashore. On each return to the colony, females and pups first use vocalizations to find each other among several hundred conspecifics and olfaction is used as a final check. Such vocal identification has to be highly efficient. In this present study, we investigated the components of the individual vocal signature used by pups to identify their mothers by performing playback experiments on pups with synthetic signals. We thus tested the efficiency of this individual vocal signature by performing propagation tests and by testing pups at different playback distances. Pups use both amplitude and frequency modulations to identify their mother's voice, as well as the energy spectrum. Propagation tests showed that frequency modulations propagated reliably up to 64m, whereas amplitude modulations and spectral content greatly were highly degraded for distances over 8m. Playback on pups at different distances suggested that the individual identification is a two-step process: at long range, pups identified first the frequency modulation pattern of their mother's calls, and other components of the vocal signature at closer range. The individual vocal recognition system developed by Antarctic fur seals is well adapted to face the main constraint of finding kin in a crowd. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Fur Seal Antarctic Fur Seals Arctocephalus gazella Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Antarctic PLOS ONE 10 9 e0134513 |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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ftdoajarticles |
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English |
topic |
Medicine R Science Q |
spellingShingle |
Medicine R Science Q Thierry Aubin Pierre Jouventin Isabelle Charrier Mother Vocal Recognition in Antarctic Fur Seal Arctocephalus gazella Pups: A Two-Step Process. |
topic_facet |
Medicine R Science Q |
description |
In otariids, mother's recognition by pups is essential to their survival since females nurse exclusively their own young and can be very aggressive towards non-kin. Antarctic fur seal, Arctocephalus gazella, come ashore to breed and form dense colonies. During the 4-month lactation period, females alternate foraging trips at sea with suckling period ashore. On each return to the colony, females and pups first use vocalizations to find each other among several hundred conspecifics and olfaction is used as a final check. Such vocal identification has to be highly efficient. In this present study, we investigated the components of the individual vocal signature used by pups to identify their mothers by performing playback experiments on pups with synthetic signals. We thus tested the efficiency of this individual vocal signature by performing propagation tests and by testing pups at different playback distances. Pups use both amplitude and frequency modulations to identify their mother's voice, as well as the energy spectrum. Propagation tests showed that frequency modulations propagated reliably up to 64m, whereas amplitude modulations and spectral content greatly were highly degraded for distances over 8m. Playback on pups at different distances suggested that the individual identification is a two-step process: at long range, pups identified first the frequency modulation pattern of their mother's calls, and other components of the vocal signature at closer range. The individual vocal recognition system developed by Antarctic fur seals is well adapted to face the main constraint of finding kin in a crowd. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Thierry Aubin Pierre Jouventin Isabelle Charrier |
author_facet |
Thierry Aubin Pierre Jouventin Isabelle Charrier |
author_sort |
Thierry Aubin |
title |
Mother Vocal Recognition in Antarctic Fur Seal Arctocephalus gazella Pups: A Two-Step Process. |
title_short |
Mother Vocal Recognition in Antarctic Fur Seal Arctocephalus gazella Pups: A Two-Step Process. |
title_full |
Mother Vocal Recognition in Antarctic Fur Seal Arctocephalus gazella Pups: A Two-Step Process. |
title_fullStr |
Mother Vocal Recognition in Antarctic Fur Seal Arctocephalus gazella Pups: A Two-Step Process. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Mother Vocal Recognition in Antarctic Fur Seal Arctocephalus gazella Pups: A Two-Step Process. |
title_sort |
mother vocal recognition in antarctic fur seal arctocephalus gazella pups: a two-step process. |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0134513 https://doaj.org/article/372b4e298dc34c1488d3c861936b19c9 |
geographic |
Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Fur Seal Antarctic Fur Seals Arctocephalus gazella |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Fur Seal Antarctic Fur Seals Arctocephalus gazella |
op_source |
PLoS ONE, Vol 10, Iss 9, p e0134513 (2015) |
op_relation |
http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4558088?pdf=render https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0134513 https://doaj.org/article/372b4e298dc34c1488d3c861936b19c9 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0134513 |
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PLOS ONE |
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10 |
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9 |
container_start_page |
e0134513 |
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