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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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:918a6fabe39d4203b66756e704a8fd53 2023-10-09T21:44:22+02:00 Social calls of the little auk (Alle alle) reflect body size and possibly partnership, but not sex Anna N. Osiecka Elodie F. Briefer Dorota Kidawa Katarzyna Wojczulanis-Jakubas 2023-09-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.230845 https://doaj.org/article/918a6fabe39d4203b66756e704a8fd53 EN eng The Royal Society https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.230845 https://doaj.org/toc/2054-5703 doi:10.1098/rsos.230845 2054-5703 https://doaj.org/article/918a6fabe39d4203b66756e704a8fd53 Royal Society Open Science, Vol 10, Iss 9 (2023) information coding partner similarity seabird source–filter theory vocal communication Science Q article 2023 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.230845 2023-09-24T00:38:26Z 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 Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Royal Society Open Science 10 9 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
information coding partner similarity seabird source–filter theory vocal communication Science Q |
spellingShingle |
information coding partner similarity seabird source–filter theory vocal communication Science Q Anna N. Osiecka Elodie F. Briefer Dorota Kidawa Katarzyna Wojczulanis-Jakubas Social calls of the little auk (Alle alle) reflect body size and possibly partnership, but not sex |
topic_facet |
information coding partner similarity seabird source–filter theory vocal communication Science Q |
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. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Anna N. Osiecka Elodie F. Briefer Dorota Kidawa Katarzyna Wojczulanis-Jakubas |
author_facet |
Anna N. Osiecka Elodie F. Briefer Dorota Kidawa Katarzyna Wojczulanis-Jakubas |
author_sort |
Anna N. Osiecka |
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 |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.230845 https://doaj.org/article/918a6fabe39d4203b66756e704a8fd53 |
genre |
Alle alle little auk |
genre_facet |
Alle alle little auk |
op_source |
Royal Society Open Science, Vol 10, Iss 9 (2023) |
op_relation |
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.230845 https://doaj.org/toc/2054-5703 doi:10.1098/rsos.230845 2054-5703 https://doaj.org/article/918a6fabe39d4203b66756e704a8fd53 |
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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