Description of the sound diversity of two species of tuco-tucos (Ctenomys torquatusandCtenomys lami) in natural environment

Abstract

Sound signals can travel through long distances, becoming an important communication channel between animals that need to establish contact beyond the visual form. They can then be considered a relevant form of communication between species living in the underground environment. Ctenomys torquatus and Ctenomys lami are solitary subterranean rodents, thus demanding an improvement of the communicative channels, especially in territorial defense actions and meeting potential reproductive partners. This work was aimed to describe the variability of acoustic signals emitted by C. torquatus and C. lami by analyzing the physical-morphological characteristics of the signals. The study was carried out in two populations, one of each species and was selected 14 individuals of C. torquatus and 15 C. lami. The acoustic signals were recorded in a natural environment, obtaining the sounds straight from the animal tunnels. A total of 1,380 signals were captured and analyzed, 786 from C. torquatus and 594 from C. lami. It was possible to characterize 5 different types of signals, emitted by both species. Most of the analyzed sequences presented low frequency, and many of these calls exhibited characteristics of long-range signals. It was verified a sharing of sound signals in both species, as regarding the acoustic parameters as the morphology of the analyzed spectrograms. For the first time, it was possible to have access to sound data emitted by direct subterranean rodents from their tunnels in the natural environment.