Female koalas prefer bellows in which lower formants indicate larger males

Charlton, Benjamin D.; Ellis, William A. H.; Brumm, Jacqui; Nilsson, Kjell; Fitch, W. Tecumseh

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2012.09.034

Cited by 67 publications

(59 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Formants have been shown to vary consistently according to caller identity in several other mammal species (Rendall 2003, Soltis et al 2005, and we also found that the upper formants (F3-F6) of meerkat barks contributed the most to individual distinctiveness. This is in line with similar findings in other species such as African elephants (Loxodonta Africanis) (Soltis et al 2005), koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) (Charlton et al 2012), red deer (Cervus elaphus) (Reby et al 2006) and chacma baboons (Papio ursinus, Rendall 2003).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 76%

“…Fitch 2000, Fitch and Reby 2001, Charlton et al 2012) because of a close relationship between formant spacing, vocal tract length and overall body size. In addition, because formant frequency values are also affected by the shape of the vocal tract, which will vary between individuals, 3 these spectral components of mammal vocalizations are often found to be reliable cues to individual identity (Rendall 2003, Solstis et al 2005, Reby et al 2006, Charlton et al 2009, Charlton et al 2012.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Acoustic cues to identity and predator context in meerkat barks

2014

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suggesting that formants could be used by meerkats to identify conspecifics. In addition, Mixed-effects Models indicated that the frequency of the first formant was lower in barks produced in aerial versus terrestrial predation contexts. These data add to a growing body of literature on the potential function of formants in non-human animal vocal communication systems, and also imply that signaling external and referential information through such

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 76%

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confidence: 99%

Acoustic cues to identity and predator context in meerkat barks

2014

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“…In fact, there is evidence of vocal differences between speech directed towards romantic partners and same-sex friends which can be detected by listeners (Farley, Hughes, & LaFayette, 2013), and intentional voice manipulations make female voices, but not male voices, sound more attractive (Hughes, Mogilski, & Harrison, 2013; see also Fraccaro et al, 2013). Indeed, such modulations occur in other species including frogs (Ryan, 1980), koalas, Phascolarctos cinereus (Charlton, Ellis, Brumm, Nilsson, & Fitch, 2012), fallow deer, Dama dama (Charlton & Reby, 2011), red deer, Cervus elaphus (Reby et al, 2005;Reby, Charlton, Locatelli, & McComb, 2010), and birds. For example, in the zebra finch, Taeniopygia guttata, males sing more rapidly to females than when they sing alone, producing syllables with lower spectral variability (Kao & Brainard, 2006 Feinberg, Jones, Little, et al, 2005;Puts, Hodges, Cárdenas, & Gaulin, 2007).…”

Section: Accepted M Manuscriptmentioning

confidence: 97%

Vocal modulation during courtship increases proceptivity even in naive listeners

Leongoméz

Binter

Kubicová

et al. 2014

Evolution and Human Behavior

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Speakers modulate their voice when talking to infants, but we know little about subtle variation in acoustic parameters during speech in adult social interactions. Because tests of perception of such variation are hampered by listeners' understanding of semantic content, studies often confine speech to enunciation of standard sentences, restricting ecological validity. Furthermore, apparent paralinguistic modulation in one language may be underpinned by specific parameters of that language. Here we circumvent these problems by recording speech directed to attractive or unattractive potential partners or competitors, and testing responses to these recordings by naive listeners, across both a Germanic (English) and a Slavic (Czech) language. Analysis of acoustic parameters indicates that men's voices varied F 0 most in speech towards potential attractive versus unattractive mates, while modulation of women's F 0 variability was more sensitive to competitors, with higher variability when those competitors were relatively attractive. There was striking similarity in patterns of social context-dependent F 0 variation across the two model languages, with both men's and women's voices varying most when responding to attractive individuals. Men's minimum pitch was lower when responding to attractive than unattractive women. For vocal modulation to be effective, however, it must be sufficiently detectable to promote proceptivity towards the speaker. We showed that speech directed towards attractive individuals was preferred by naive listeners of either language over speech by the same speaker to unattractive individuals, even when voices were stripped of several acoustic properties by low-pass filtering, which renders speech unintelligible. Our results suggest that modulating F 0 may be a critical parameter in human courtship, independently of semantic content.

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“…Testosterone has also has been found to positively correlate with disease resistance (Rantala et al, 2012), perceived masculinity (Penton-Voak and Chen, 2004), dominance (Mazur and Booth, 1998), social status (Eisenegger et al, 2011) and mating success (Peters et al, 2008), though it is also associated with decreased parental investment (Fleming et al, 2002), higher rates of antisocial behaviour (Booth et al, 2006) and infidelity (Booth and Dabbs, 1993). Moreover, in most mammals body size has been shown to play a major role in acquiring mates and resources, as larger males are more likely to win fights (Lindenfors et al, 2007), and are more attractive to females (Charlton et al, 2007(Charlton et al, , 2012McElligott et al, 2001). In humans, taller men have been found to be healthier (La Batide-Alanore et al, 2003;Smith et al, 2000), enjoy higher reproductive (Nettle, 2002;Pawlowski et al, 2000), academic (Hensley, 1993) and socioeconomic (Harper, 2000;Judge and Cable, 2004) success, and are more attractive to Western women (Mautz et al, 2013;Stulp et al, 2014;Swami et al, 2008;Yancey and Emerson, 2014) than shorter men, despite possible costs associated with male tallness (i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%