Can harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) discriminate familiar conspecific calls after long periods of separation?

* - indicates joint first authorship - 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 specie...

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Published in:PeerJ
Main Authors: Varola*, M., Verga*, L., Sroka, M., Villanueva, S., Charrier, I., Ravignani, A.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-0009-598C-6
http://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-0009-7AEB-6
http://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-0009-7AEC-5
id ftpubman:oai:pure.mpg.de:item_3346048
record_format openpolar
spelling ftpubman:oai:pure.mpg.de:item_3346048 2023-08-27T04:09:51+02:00 Can harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) discriminate familiar conspecific calls after long periods of separation? Varola*, M. Verga*, L. Sroka, M. Villanueva, S. Charrier, I. Ravignani, A. 2021-11-15 application/pdf application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet http://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-0009-598C-6 http://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-0009-7AEB-6 http://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-0009-7AEC-5 eng eng info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.7717/peerj.12431 http://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-0009-598C-6 http://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-0009-7AEB-6 http://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-0009-7AEC-5 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ PeerJ info:eu-repo/semantics/article 2021 ftpubman https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.12431 2023-08-02T00:50:07Z * - indicates joint first authorship - 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 Max Planck Society: MPG.PuRe PeerJ 9 e12431
institution Open Polar
collection Max Planck Society: MPG.PuRe
op_collection_id ftpubman
language English
description * - indicates joint first authorship - 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 Varola*, M.
Verga*, L.
Sroka, M.
Villanueva, S.
Charrier, I.
Ravignani, A.
spellingShingle Varola*, M.
Verga*, L.
Sroka, M.
Villanueva, S.
Charrier, I.
Ravignani, A.
Can harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) discriminate familiar conspecific calls after long periods of separation?
author_facet Varola*, M.
Verga*, L.
Sroka, M.
Villanueva, S.
Charrier, I.
Ravignani, A.
author_sort Varola*, M.
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?
publishDate 2021
url http://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-0009-598C-6
http://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-0009-7AEB-6
http://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-0009-7AEC-5
genre harbor seal
Phoca vitulina
genre_facet harbor seal
Phoca vitulina
op_source PeerJ
op_relation info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.7717/peerj.12431
http://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-0009-598C-6
http://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-0009-7AEB-6
http://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-0009-7AEC-5
op_rights info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
op_doi https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.12431
container_title PeerJ
container_volume 9
container_start_page e12431
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