Parent–offspring recognition in tree swallows,Tachycineta bicolor

Leonard, Madeleine; Horn, Andrew G.; Brown, Cory R; Fernandez, Nicole J

doi:10.1006/anbe.1997.0559

Cited by 53 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…This is presumably because the first nestling to beg when parents arrive at the nest is often most likely to be fed [4,5]. Thus, a rapid response to the first sign of a parent's arrival, such as contact calls [6] and sounds made when it lands [7] increases the chance of a feeding. The 'hair trigger' response needed to ensure a feeding, however, also brings with it an increase in false alarms (i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ambient noise increases missed detections in nestling birds

Leonard

Horn

2012

Biol. Lett.

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Ambient noise can mask acoustic cues, making their detection and discrimination difficult for receivers. This can result in two types of error: missed detections, when receivers fail to respond to the appropriate cues, and false alarms, when they respond to inappropriate cues. Nestling birds are error-prone, sometimes failing to beg when parents arrive with food (committing missed detections) or begging in response to stimuli other than a parent's arrival (committing false alarms). Here, we ask whether the frequency of these errors by nestling tree swallows ( Tachycineta bicolor ) increases in the presence of noise. We found that nestlings exposed to noise had more missed detections than their unexposed counterparts. We also found that false alarms remained low overall and did not differ significantly between noise and quiet treatments. Our results suggest that nestlings living in noisy environments may be less responsive to their parents than nestlings in quieter environments.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ambient noise increases missed detections in nestling birds

Leonard

Horn

2012

Biol. Lett.

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“…The specific acoustic features required to distinguish between individuals according to their vocalizations have been measured in a host of taxa ͓e.g., birds: macaroni penguins ͑Eudyptes chrysolophus͒, Searby et al, 2004, chiropterans: evening bats ͑Nyc-ticeius humeralis͒, Scherrer and Wilkinson, 1993, canids: timber wolves ͑Canis lupus͒, Goldman et al, 1995, primates: common marmosets ͑Callithrix jacchus͒, Jones et al, 1993, pinnipeds: subantarctic fur seals ͑Arctocephalus tropicalis͒, Charrier et al, 2001Charrier et al, , 2003 bottlenose dolphins ͑Tursiops truncatus͒, Janik, 1999 Playback experiments have demonstrated that animals can recognize signature signals and have illustrated the diversity of contexts in which signature vocalizations are used, including facilitating recognition between an infant and one or both of its parents ͓cliff swallows ͑Hirundo pyrrhonota͒: Stoddard and Beecher, 1983, tree swallows ͑Tachycineta bicolor͒: Leonard et al, 1997, Mexican free-tailed bats ͑Tadarida brasiliensis mexicana͒: Balcombe, 1990, fur seals ͑Arctocephalus tropicalis͒: Charrier et al, 2001, bottlenose dolphins: Sayigh et al, 1998, mate-pair recognition ͓king penguins ͑Aptenodytes patagonicus͒: Lengagne et al, 2000͔, and group affiliation associated with territorial defense ͑North American bullfrog ͑Rana catesbeiana͒: Bee and Gerhardt, 2002, Arctic foxes ͑Alopex lagopus͒: Frommolt et al, 2003͒. There are selective benefits for the signals produced in these contexts. Recognition is very important when one or both parents must allocate a finite amount of resources to their offspring, a scenario in which confusion is associated with high fitness costs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preliminary evidence for signature vocalizations among free-ranging narwhals (Monodon monoceros)

Shapiro

2006

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

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Animal signature vocalizations that are distinctive at the individual or group level can facilitate recognition between conspecifics and re-establish contact with an animal that has become separated from its associates. In this study, the vocal behavior of two free-ranging adult male narwhals ͑Monodon monoceros͒ in Admiralty Inlet, Baffin Island was recorded using digital archival tags. These recording instruments were deployed when the animals were caught and held onshore to attach satellite tags, a protocol that separated them from their groups. The signature content of two vocal categories was considered: ͑1͒ combined tonal/pulsed signals, which contained synchronous pulsatile and tonal content; ͑2͒ whistles, or frequency modulated tonal signals with harmonic energy. Nonparametric comparisons of the temporal and spectral features of each vocal class revealed significant differences between the two individuals. A separate, cross-correlation measure conducted on the whistles that accounted for overall contour shape and absolute frequency content confirmed greater interindividual compared to intraindividual differences. These data are consistent with the hypothesis that narwhals produce signature vocalizations that may facilitate their reunion with group members once they become separated, but additional data are required to demonstrate this claim more rigorously.

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“…Unlike the individually distinctive contact calls of primates (Rendall et al 1996;Wanker & Fischer 2001) or the unique mother-offspring calls of species that leave their young in groups or colonies while foraging (Leonard et al 1997;Jouventin et al 1999;Insley 2000), alarm calls are vocalizations emitted under extreme duress (Klump & Shalter 1984) and might not initially be expected to have other social functions. Communication requires a receiver to respond differently in some way to signal variation (Bradbury & Vehrencamp 1998).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reliability and the adaptive utility of discrimination among alarm callers

Blumstein

Verneyre

Daniel

2004

Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B

153

100

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Unlike individually distinctive contact calls, or calls that aid in the recognition of young by their parents, the function or functions of individually distinctive alarm calls is less obvious. We conducted three experiments to study the importance of caller reliability in explaining individual-discriminative abilities in the alarm calls of yellow-bellied marmots (Marmota flaviventris). In our first two experiments, we found that calls from less reliable individuals and calls from individuals calling from a greater simulated distance were more evocative than calls from reliable individuals or nearby callers. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that marmots assess the reliability of callers to help them decide how much time to allocate to independent vigilance. The third experiment demonstrated that the number of callers influenced responsiveness, probably because situations where more than a single caller calls, are those when there is certain to be a predator present. Taken together, the results from all three experiments demonstrate the importance of reliability in explaining individual discrimination abilities in yellow-bellied marmots. Marmots' assessment of reliability acts by influencing the time allocated to individual assessment and thus the time not allocated to other activities.

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Parent–offspring recognition in tree swallows,Tachycineta bicolor

Cited by 53 publications

References 22 publications

Ambient noise increases missed detections in nestling birds

Ambient noise increases missed detections in nestling birds

Preliminary evidence for signature vocalizations among free-ranging narwhals (Monodon monoceros)

Reliability and the adaptive utility of discrimination among alarm callers

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