Cultural conformity and persistence in Dickcissel song are higher in locations in which males show high site fidelity

Abstract

Dickcissel (Spiza americana) males occupying territories in cropland sites produced songs that were less similar on average to other Dickcissel songs in their neighborhood than did Dickcissels living in grasslands, where conformity to the local vocal culture was higher. Further, Dickcissel vocal culture changed more quickly over time in cropland sites relative to grassland sites. These differences may have resulted from the lower site fidelity we observed in Dickcissel males in cropland sites relative to grassland sites. We expected this link with site fidelity because we hypothesized that conformity to local culture in Oscine songbirds and the persistence of culture over time and space are promoted by habitats that facilitate stable populations. In contrast, sites in which habitat features cause rapid population turnover provide more territory vacancies and so more opportunities for colonization. Colonization should drive cultural change, either through adult colonists importing foreign cultural variants or young colonists making errors as they learn the local song. This potential link between population turnover and cultural stability may apply to animal cultures more broadly and so may be a fruitful area for further research. Besides the link between site fidelity and cultural change over time, we also investigated the possibility that habitats with different levels of site fidelity might show differences in the spatial scale of song similarity. However, we found no evidence of such a difference. Finally, although our conclusions regarding conformity and change in vocal culture were based on many recorded songs, automated assessments of song similarity imprecisely estimated the overall degree of song similarity. Thus, we may have underestimated the strength of the effects of time and distance on song similarity.

Robust encoding of acoustic identity in alpaca hums - a basis for individual recognition

“…However, we cannot exclude the possibility that this variation may also result of vocal similarities among some individuals. Vocal similarity may be a result of many factors, including social or environmental accommodation (Ruch et al, 2018), genetic relatedness (Hauser, 1996), or population processes such as turnover rates (Parker et al, 2022). It is possible that certain individuals in our study associate with each other more frequently and therefore their calls converge (as summarised in Ruch et al, 2018), or that a more similar genetic make-up results in similar build and therefore sounds produced (e.g., in pandas (Charlton et al, 2009) or mouse lemurs (Zimmermann and Hafen, 2001)).…”

BASSA: New software tool reveals hidden details in visualisation of low‐frequency animal sounds

“…Visual analysis of animal sounds is an important technique in a wide range of research areas, including sound production (Dziak et al., 2017 ; Fitch & Hauser, 1995 ; Herbst et al., 2012 ; Monte et al., 2020 ), identifying species and populations (Forti et al., 2017 ; Leroy et al., 2021 ; Wei et al., 2022 ), studying animal communication (Dutour et al., 2021 ; King et al., 2021 ; Vergne et al., 2009 ) and culture (Lachlan et al., 2018 ; Parker et al., 2022 ; Warren et al., 2020 ) and for estimating spatial behaviour (Blumstein et al., 2011 ; Mellinger et al., 2007 ; Rogers et al., 2013 ) and abundance (Dawson & Efford, 2009 ; Marques et al., 2013 ; Sugai et al., 2019 ; Thompson et al., 2010 ; Thorne & Dawson, 1974 ). Additionally, many bioacoustics software packages operate not on the sounds themselves, but on their visualisations (LeBien et al., 2020 ; Marchal et al., 2022 ; Mellinger & Clark, 2000 ; Miller et al., 2022 ; Popescu et al., 2013 ; Ulloa et al., 2021 ).…”