Alarm Calling in Three Species of Marmots

Blumstein, Daniel T.

doi:10.1163/156853999501540

Cited by 79 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Within the sciurid alarm call system, an array of communicative complexity is exhibited. Species vary in the acoustic structure of their calls [39,54,64], the size of their alarm call repertoires [39,49] (figure 1), the response urgency or distance to predator encoded in their calls [65 -67], syntactic or ordering differences in calls [64], and the degree to which age and sex and individual identity are encoded [54,68]. As with social complexity, we can view these as attributes of communicative complexity and they can be independently studied in comparative analyses.…”

Section: Sciurids As a Model Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolving communicative complexity: insights from rodents and beyond

Pollard

Blumstein

2012

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

128

103

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Social living goes hand in hand with communication, but the details of this relationship are rarely simple. Complex communication may be described by attributes as diverse as a species' entire repertoire, signallers' individualistic signatures, or complex acoustic phenomena within single calls. Similarly, attributes of social complexity are diverse and may include group size, social role diversity, or networks of interactions and relationships. How these different attributes of social and communicative complexity co-evolve is an active question in behavioural ecology. Sciurid rodents (ground squirrels, prairie dogs and marmots) provide an excellent model system for studying these questions. Sciurid studies have found that demographic role complexity predicts alarm call repertoire size, while social group size predicts alarm call individuality. Along with other taxa, sciurids reveal an important insight: different attributes of sociality are linked to different attributes of communication. By breaking social and communicative complexity down to different attributes, focused studies can better untangle the underlying evolutionary relationships and move us closer to a comprehensive theory of how sociality and communication evolve.

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Section: Sciurids As a Model Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolving communicative complexity: insights from rodents and beyond

Pollard

Blumstein

2012

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

128

103

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“…Some species produce several acoustically distinct alarm calls in response to different predator types (Seyfarth et al 1980a, b;Manser et al 2002;Templeton et al 2005), but in others, the nature of the danger encountered is reflected by the number of calls per sequence (Schel et al 2009), the rate of call delivery (Lemasson et al 2010), the intensity of calls (Blumstein 1999), or by combinations of calls (Arnold and Zuberbühler 2006a, b).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The alarm call system of wild black-fronted titi monkeys, Callicebus nigrifrons

Cäsar

Byrne

Young

et al. 2012

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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Upon encountering predators, many animals produce specific vocalisations that alert others and sometimes dissuade the predators from hunting. Callicebus monkeys are known for their large vocal repertoire, but little is known about the function and meaning of most call types. We recorded a large number of natural predator responses from five different groups of black-fronted titi monkeys in their Atlantic forest habitat in South Eastern Brazil. When detecting predatory threats, adult group members responded with call sequences that initially consisted of two brief, highpitched calls with distinct frequency contours. Call A was mainly given to raptors but also to predatory capuchin monkeys and other threats within the canopy, while call B was given to predatory or non-predatory disturbances on the ground. In later parts of the sequences, we also recorded a high-pitched unmodulated call C and various low-pitched loud calls. Results therefore suggest that calls A and B provide listeners with rapid and reliable information about the general classes of danger experienced by the caller, while obtaining more specific information through other call types and combinations and behavioural responses. We discuss these findings in relation to current evolutionary theory of primate communication.

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“…But calls are different from songs in that they provide much more direct information about environmental conditions (Marler 2004). Although we cannot conclude drongo mimicry is used as a label for an environmental stimulus (and is thus 'referential', in sensu Evans et al 1993) because mimicry could also reflect the animal's sense of risk (Blumstein 1999), mimicked calls do provide reliable information to receivers. The ability to imitate calls contextually would allow drongos to use a novel signal associated with a particular environmental condition to communicate information about the environment to conspecifics and possibly heterospecifics.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 80%

Context-dependent vocal mimicry in a passerine bird

Goodale

Kotagama

2005

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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How do birds select the sounds they mimic, and in what contexts do they use vocal mimicry? Some birds show a preference for mimicking other species' alarm notes, especially in situations when they appear to be alarmed. Yet no study has demonstrated that birds change the call types they mimic with changing contexts. We found that greater racket-tailed drongos (Dicrurus paradiseus) in the rainforest of Sri Lanka mimic the calls of predators and the alarm-associated calls of other species more often than would be expected from the frequency of these sounds in the acoustic environment. Drongos include this alarmassociated mimicry in their own alarm vocalizations, while incorporating other species' songs and contact calls in their own songs. Drongos show an additional level of context specificity by mimicking other species' ground predator-specific call types when mobbing. We suggest that drongos learn other species' calls and their contexts while interacting with these species in mixed flocks. The drongos' behaviour demonstrates that alarm-associated calls can have learned components, and that birds can learn the appropriate usage of calls that encode different types of information.

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Alarm Calling in Three Species of Marmots

Cited by 79 publications

References 34 publications

Evolving communicative complexity: insights from rodents and beyond

Evolving communicative complexity: insights from rodents and beyond

The alarm call system of wild black-fronted titi monkeys, Callicebus nigrifrons

Context-dependent vocal mimicry in a passerine bird

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