Can harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) discriminate familiar conspecific calls after long periods of separation?
The ability to discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar calls may play a key role in pinnipeds’ communication and survival, as in the case of mother-pup interactions. Vocal discrimination abilities have been suggested to be more developed in pinniped species with the highest selective pressure s...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:83b6fe4d077f4565a642da6166c5d496 2024-01-07T09:43:45+01:00 Can harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) discriminate familiar conspecific calls after long periods of separation? Mila Varola Laura Verga Marlene Gunda Ursel Sroka Stella Villanueva Isabelle Charrier Andrea Ravignani 2021-11-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.12431 https://doaj.org/article/83b6fe4d077f4565a642da6166c5d496 EN eng PeerJ Inc. https://peerj.com/articles/12431.pdf https://peerj.com/articles/12431/ https://doaj.org/toc/2167-8359 doi:10.7717/peerj.12431 2167-8359 https://doaj.org/article/83b6fe4d077f4565a642da6166c5d496 PeerJ, Vol 9, p e12431 (2021) Vocal recognition Long-term memory Pinnipeds Harbor seals Phoca vitulina Playback presentation Medicine R Biology (General) QH301-705.5 article 2021 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.12431 2023-12-10T01:52:27Z The ability to discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar calls may play a key role in pinnipeds’ communication and survival, as in the case of mother-pup interactions. Vocal discrimination abilities have been suggested to be more developed in pinniped species with the highest selective pressure such as the otariids; yet, in some group-living phocids, such as harbor seals (Phoca vitulina), mothers are also able to recognize their pup’s voice. Conspecifics’ vocal recognition in pups has never been investigated; however, the repeated interaction occurring between pups within the breeding season suggests that long-term vocal discrimination may occur. Here we explored this hypothesis by presenting three rehabilitated seal pups with playbacks of vocalizations from unfamiliar or familiar pups. It is uncommon for seals to come into rehabilitation for a second time in their lifespan, and this study took advantage of these rare cases. A simple visual inspection of the data plots seemed to show more reactions, and of longer duration, in response to familiar as compared to unfamiliar playbacks in two out of three pups. However, statistical analyses revealed no significant difference between the experimental conditions. We also found no significant asymmetry in orientation (left vs. right) towards familiar and unfamiliar sounds. While statistics do not support the hypothesis of an established ability to discriminate familiar vocalizations from unfamiliar ones in harbor seal pups, further investigations with a larger sample size are needed to confirm or refute this hypothesis. Article in Journal/Newspaper harbor seal Phoca vitulina Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles PeerJ 9 e12431 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Vocal recognition Long-term memory Pinnipeds Harbor seals Phoca vitulina Playback presentation Medicine R Biology (General) QH301-705.5 |
spellingShingle |
Vocal recognition Long-term memory Pinnipeds Harbor seals Phoca vitulina Playback presentation Medicine R Biology (General) QH301-705.5 Mila Varola Laura Verga Marlene Gunda Ursel Sroka Stella Villanueva Isabelle Charrier Andrea Ravignani Can harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) discriminate familiar conspecific calls after long periods of separation? |
topic_facet |
Vocal recognition Long-term memory Pinnipeds Harbor seals Phoca vitulina Playback presentation Medicine R Biology (General) QH301-705.5 |
description |
The ability to discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar calls may play a key role in pinnipeds’ communication and survival, as in the case of mother-pup interactions. Vocal discrimination abilities have been suggested to be more developed in pinniped species with the highest selective pressure such as the otariids; yet, in some group-living phocids, such as harbor seals (Phoca vitulina), mothers are also able to recognize their pup’s voice. Conspecifics’ vocal recognition in pups has never been investigated; however, the repeated interaction occurring between pups within the breeding season suggests that long-term vocal discrimination may occur. Here we explored this hypothesis by presenting three rehabilitated seal pups with playbacks of vocalizations from unfamiliar or familiar pups. It is uncommon for seals to come into rehabilitation for a second time in their lifespan, and this study took advantage of these rare cases. A simple visual inspection of the data plots seemed to show more reactions, and of longer duration, in response to familiar as compared to unfamiliar playbacks in two out of three pups. However, statistical analyses revealed no significant difference between the experimental conditions. We also found no significant asymmetry in orientation (left vs. right) towards familiar and unfamiliar sounds. While statistics do not support the hypothesis of an established ability to discriminate familiar vocalizations from unfamiliar ones in harbor seal pups, further investigations with a larger sample size are needed to confirm or refute this hypothesis. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Mila Varola Laura Verga Marlene Gunda Ursel Sroka Stella Villanueva Isabelle Charrier Andrea Ravignani |
author_facet |
Mila Varola Laura Verga Marlene Gunda Ursel Sroka Stella Villanueva Isabelle Charrier Andrea Ravignani |
author_sort |
Mila Varola |
title |
Can harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) discriminate familiar conspecific calls after long periods of separation? |
title_short |
Can harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) discriminate familiar conspecific calls after long periods of separation? |
title_full |
Can harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) discriminate familiar conspecific calls after long periods of separation? |
title_fullStr |
Can harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) discriminate familiar conspecific calls after long periods of separation? |
title_full_unstemmed |
Can harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) discriminate familiar conspecific calls after long periods of separation? |
title_sort |
can harbor seals (phoca vitulina) discriminate familiar conspecific calls after long periods of separation? |
publisher |
PeerJ Inc. |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.12431 https://doaj.org/article/83b6fe4d077f4565a642da6166c5d496 |
genre |
harbor seal Phoca vitulina |
genre_facet |
harbor seal Phoca vitulina |
op_source |
PeerJ, Vol 9, p e12431 (2021) |
op_relation |
https://peerj.com/articles/12431.pdf https://peerj.com/articles/12431/ https://doaj.org/toc/2167-8359 doi:10.7717/peerj.12431 2167-8359 https://doaj.org/article/83b6fe4d077f4565a642da6166c5d496 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.12431 |
container_title |
PeerJ |
container_volume |
9 |
container_start_page |
e12431 |
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