Big brother is watching you: eavesdropping to resolve family conflicts

Dreiss, Amélie N.; Ruppli, Charlène A.; Faller, Christof; Roulin, Alexandre

doi:10.1093/beheco/ars210

Cited by 14 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…We used Matlab (MathWorks, Natick, MA, USA) to assign calls to nestlings by comparing the signal level of the two microphones, because the microphone oriented towards a nestling that was calling gave a stronger signal than the microphone oriented in the opposite direction. We considered seven vocal parameters, the number of calls and six acoustic features measured using Matlab (Dreiss et al ., ). The considered acoustic features were the following variables (see Fig.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Nestlings were already thermo‐independent and able to eat prey items by themselves. Nestlings in the laboratory were not physiologically stressed (Dreiss et al ., ) and fledged with similar success and with similar body mass than nonmanipulated nestlings (Dreiss et al ., ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…In dyadic sib–sib interactions, age hierarchy due to asynchronous hatching affects vocal production as less competitive junior nestlings have to produce more calls to defy their senior nestmates (Dreiss et al ., ). Interestingly, siblings also adjust their vocalization to the past vocalizations produced by nestmates (Dreiss et al ., ), indicating that they recognize individual siblings and remember their performance.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Current knowledge on this sib–sib communication process suggests that barn owl nestlings can concomitantly identify individual siblings and assess their level of need and competitive ability based on vocal cues (Dreiss et al ., ). In a first move into the study of such a complex system, we here examine three issues.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

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Individual vocal signatures in barn owl nestlings: does individual recognition have an adaptive role in sibling vocal competition?

Dreiss

Ruppli

Roulin

2013

J of Evolutionary Biology

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To compete over limited parental resources, young animals communicate with their parents and siblings by producing honest vocal signals of need. Components of begging calls that are sensitive to food deprivation may honestly signal need, whereas other components may be associated with individualspecific attributes that do not change with time such as identity, sex, absolute age and hierarchy. In a sib-sib communication system where barn owl (Tyto alba) nestlings vocally negotiate priority access to food resources, we show that calls have individual signatures that are used by nestlings to recognize which siblings are motivated to compete, even if most vocalization features vary with hunger level. Nestlings were more identifiable when food-deprived than food-satiated, suggesting that vocal identity is emphasized when the benefit of winning a vocal contest is higher. In broods where siblings interact iteratively, we speculate that individual-specific signature permits siblings to verify that the most vocal individual in the absence of parents is the one that indeed perceived the food brought by parents. Individual recognition may also allow nestlings to associate identity with individual-specific characteristics such as position in the within-brood dominance hierarchy. Calls indeed revealed age hierarchy and to a lower extent sex and absolute age. Using a cross-fostering experimental design, we show that most acoustic features were related to the nest of origin (but not the nest of rearing), suggesting a genetic or an early developmental effect on the ontogeny of vocal signatures. To conclude, our study suggests that sibling competition has promoted the evolution of vocal behaviours that signal not only hunger level but also intrinsic individual characteristics such as identity, family, sex and age.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

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Individual vocal signatures in barn owl nestlings: does individual recognition have an adaptive role in sibling vocal competition?

Dreiss

Ruppli

Roulin

2013

J of Evolutionary Biology

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“…On the other hand, during the daylight periods, when parents were not bringing food to the nest box [24], the older and larger siblings may have perched longer and more often at the entrance in preparation for fledging earlier than their younger and smaller nest mates [23]. It is also possible that by monopolizing the nest box entrance, older nestlings can reaffirm their social dominance status (in the same way as is reported for vocalisation by Barn owl nestlings [56], [57]). …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perching of Tengmalm's Owl (Aegolius funereus) Nestlings at the Nest Box Entrance: Effect of Time of the Day, Age, Wing Length and Body Weight

2014

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The behaviour of the nestlings of nocturnal cavity-nesting species has relatively rarely been studied in detail because of problems connected with use of the technical devices required to provide long-term monitoring of individuals. However, long-term observation of nestling behaviour is crucial in order to identify different types of behaviour which may be caused by sibling competition at the end of nesting period. We studied behaviour of 43 Tengmalm's owl (Aegolius funereus) nestlings at 14 nests using a camera and a chip system. The nestlings perched at the nest box entrance from an average age of 28 days from hatching (range 24–34 days) until fledging, spending around 2 hours per day here in total, in periods ranging from a few seconds to 147 min (7.6±10.9 min, mean ± SD). We found that individual duration of perching at the nest box entrance was significantly influenced by nestlings' age and wing length and that the duration of perching at the nest box entrance significantly decreased with time of night. However, during daylight hours, time of day had no effect on either probability or duration of nestlings' perching. We suggest daylight perching at the nest box entrance results from nestlings' preparation for fledging, while individuals perching here during the night may gain an advantageous position for obtaining food from the parents; another possibility at all times of day is that nestlings can reaffirm their social dominance status by monopolizing the nest box entrance.

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Roulin

2022

Schleiereulen

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Big brother is watching you: eavesdropping to resolve family conflicts

Cited by 14 publications

References 29 publications

Individual vocal signatures in barn owl nestlings: does individual recognition have an adaptive role in sibling vocal competition?

Individual vocal signatures in barn owl nestlings: does individual recognition have an adaptive role in sibling vocal competition?

Perching of Tengmalm's Owl (Aegolius funereus) Nestlings at the Nest Box Entrance: Effect of Time of the Day, Age, Wing Length and Body Weight

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