Polyphony of domestic dog whines and vocal cues to body size

Abstract

In domestic dogs Canis familiaris, vocal traits have been investigated for barks and growls, and the relationship between individual body size and vocal traits investigated for growls, with less corresponding information for whines. In this study, we examined frequency and temporal traits of whines of 20 adult companion dogs (9 males, 11 females), ranging in body weight from 3.5 to 70.0 kg and belonging to 16 breeds. Dog whines (26–71 per individual, 824 in total) were recorded in conditioned begging contexts modeled by dog owners. Whines had three independent fundamental frequencies: the low, the high and the ultra-high that occurred singly as monophonic calls or simultaneously as two-voice biphonic or three-voice polyphonic calls. From the smallest to largest dog, the upper frequency limit varied from 0.24 to 2.13 kHz for the low fundamental frequency, from 2.95 to 10.46 kHz for the high fundamental frequency and from 9.99 to 23.26 kHz for the ultra-high fundamental frequency. Within individuals, the low fundamental frequency was lower in monophonic than in biphonic whines, whereas the high fundamental frequency did not differ between those whine types. All frequency variables of the low, high and ultra-high fundamental frequencies correlated negatively with dog body mass. For duration, no correlation with body mass was found. We discuss potential production mechanisms and sound sources for each fundamental frequency; point to the acoustic similarity between high-frequency dog whines and rodent ultrasonic calls and hypothesize that ultra-high fundamental frequencies function to allow private, “tete-a-tete” communication between members of social groups.

High-pitch sounds small for domestic dogs: abstract crossmodal correspondences between auditory pitch and visual size

“…pigs [28]), pitch itself (F0) is also an informative cue, especially in the widely varying morphology of dogs ( [22]; see Introduction). Indeed, since formant dispersion and F0 both vary in small to large dogs' vocalizations ( [21,29], Farago and colleagues have suggested that both could act as a cue to size in dogs ( [21]; see also [11] for other mammals). We must also consider the relevant ecological fact that dogs are perhaps the closest non-human domestic companion to humans themselves.…”

Nonlinear vocal phenomena affect human perceptions of distress, size and dominance in puppy whines

“…Yet, experienced caregivers remained sensitive to whine f o when assessing distress, size and dominance. This suggests that f o may function as a reliable index of these traits in puppy vocalizations (as identified for distress and size in adult dog whines [55,56] and in the calls of other mammals [1,2]), a hypothesis that we are currently investigating.…”

Acoustic features of long‐distance calls of wild cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) are linked to the caller age from newborns to adults

“…However, in mammals, additionally to calls produced with phonation mechanism based on air flow‐induced vibrations of the vocal folds (Berke & Long, 2010; Herbst, 2014; Herbst et al, 2012) there are calls produced with another mechanism, the aerodynamic whistle, based on airflow vorticities in the vocal tract (Håkansson et al, 2022; Mahrt et al, 2016; Riede et al, 2017, 2022). Calls of the same individual animal produced with phonation mechanism have a substantially lower fundamental frequency than those produced with whistle mechanism (carnivores: Frey et al, 2016; Sibiryakova et al, 2021, artiodactyls: Reby et al, 2016; Volodin, Volodina, & Frey, 2017, rodents: Dymskaya et al, 2022; Fernández‐Vargas et al, 2022). In addition to cubs of cheetahs, cubs of other felids, as lynxes and pumas are capable of producing very high‐frequency calls, up to 5 kHz (Allen et al, 2016; Peters, 1987, 2011).…”

“…Calls of the same individual animal produced with phonation mechanism have a substantially lower fundamental frequency than those produced with whistle mechanism (carnivores: Frey et al, 2016;Sibiryakova et al, 2021, artiodactyls: Reby et al, 2016, rodents: Dymskaya et al, 2022Fernández-Vargas et al, 2022). In addition to cubs of cheetahs, cubs of other felids, as lynxes and pumas are capable of producing very high-frequency calls, up to 5 kHz (Allen et al, 2016;Peters, 1987Peters, , 2011.…”