Vocal recognition in the spotted hyaena and its possible implications regarding the evolution of intelligence

Holekamp, Kay E.; Boydston, Erin E.; Szykman, Micaela; Graham, Isla M.; Nutt, Karen J.; Birch, Sarah; Piskiel, Audra; Singh, Mandeep

doi:10.1006/anbe.1999.1157

Cited by 88 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 55 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Like monkeys, spotted hyaenas can recognize individual group mates using cues from multiple sensory modalities [84]. For example, they can identify individual conspecifics based on their long distance 'whoop' vocalization [85][86][87][88][89][90], and they use olfactory cues to discriminate sex, reproductive state, clan membership and familiarity of conspecifics [91][92][93][94]. As in monkeys, nepotism is common among spotted hyaenas, social bonds are stronger among kin than non-kin [95][96][97], and individuals direct affiliative behaviour most frequently towards kin [97][98][99].…”

Section: Social Cognition In Spotted Hyaenas Converges With That In Pmentioning

confidence: 99%

The evolution of intelligence in mammalian carnivores

Holekamp

Benson‐Amram

2017

Interface Focus.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Although intelligence should theoretically evolve to help animals solve specific types of problems posed by the environment, it is unclear which environmental challenges favour enhanced cognition, or how general intelligence evolves along with domain-specific cognitive abilities. The social intelligence hypothesis posits that big brains and great intelligence have evolved to cope with the labile behaviour of group mates. We have exploited the remarkable convergence in social complexity between cercopithecine primates and spotted hyaenas to test predictions of the social intelligence hypothesis in regard to both cognition and brain size. Behavioural data indicate that there has been considerable convergence between primates and hyaenas with respect to their social cognitive abilities. Moreover, compared with other hyaena species, spotted hyaenas have larger brains and expanded frontal cortex, as predicted by the social intelligence hypothesis. However, broader comparative study suggests that domain-general intelligence in carnivores probably did not evolve in response to selection pressures imposed specifically in the social domain. The cognitive buffer hypothesis, which suggests that general intelligence evolves to help animals cope with novel or changing environments, appears to offer a more robust explanation for general intelligence in carnivores than any hypothesis invoking selection pressures imposed strictly by sociality or foraging demands.

show abstract

Section: Social Cognition In Spotted Hyaenas Converges With That In Pmentioning

confidence: 99%

The evolution of intelligence in mammalian carnivores

Holekamp

Benson‐Amram

2017

Interface Focus.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Previous researchers have demonstrated that spotted hyena whoops convey information about age, sex and individual identity (East & Hofer, 1991a;Holekamp et al, 1999). East & Hofer (1991a) found that cub whoops typically contain fewer harmonics, wider spacing between harmonics, shorter durations of low frequency sections of calls, and higher minimum fundamental frequencies than do whoops of adults.…”

Section: Effects Of Age and Sex On Call Structurementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although we were unable to obtain measures of these characters, our data suggest that, as chest girth (i.e., body size) increases during growth of spotted hyenas, the minimum fundamental frequencies of their whoop vocalizations correspondingly decrease. Playback experiments illustrated that spotted hyenas pay attention to age cues in whoops, as clanmates respond much more vigorously to whoops from younger callers than to those from older individuals (Holekamp et al, 1999). Although it remains to be determined whether hyenas utilize pitch cues to assess a caller's age, it would be surprising if they did not, as even humans can use the acoustic frequency of whoops to assign hyenas to broad age classes (Theis & Holekamp, unpublished data).…”

Section: Effects Of Age and Sex On Call Structurementioning

confidence: 99%

Sources of variation in the long-distance vocalizations of spotted hyenas

Theis

Greene

Benson‐Amram

et al. 2007

Behav

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

SummaryIt has long been recognized that vocal signals communicate information about the age, sex and affective state of callers. However, the mechanisms by which these types of information are communicated are less well understood. Here we investigated variation in the acoustic properties of the long-distance vocalizations, called 'whoops', emitted by free-living spotted hyenas, Crocuta crocuta. Specifically we investigated whether the fundamental frequency, length and rate of whoops provide information about the caller's age, sex and/or level of arousal. We determined the latter by contrasting whoops emitted spontaneously with whoops emitted during periods of social excitement, when callers typically also exhibited visual signals associated with heightened arousal. We found that the minimum fundamental frequency of a whoop provides reliable information about the caller's general age and, for adult callers, information about sex as well. The vast majority of adult male whoop bouts were emitted spontaneously, but juveniles and adult females produced many of their bouts during periods of social excitement. Although context did not significantly affect the whoop bouts of adult females, juvenile bouts emitted during social excitement had higher maximum fundamental frequencies, greater proportions of asymmetric whoop subtypes, and reduced inter-whoop intervals. By reducing the inter-whoop intervals of bouts, juvenile hyenas significantly increased the likelihood that conspecifics would respond to whoops by approaching the caller or its social companion. Peak fundamental frequency and the relative abundance of whoop subtypes did not appreciably affect response. We discuss the potential functions of whooping by juvenile and adult hyenas in light of these findings.

show abstract

“…These need not be primates: if the hypothesis is correct, enhanced cognitive abilities should be apparent in any highly social vertebrate (Balda et al 1996;Holekamp et al 1999). In this paper, we present the first explicit comparative test of the social complexity hypothesis conducted under well-controlled, experimental conditions, using two closely related species of birds with contrasting degrees of sociality.…”

mentioning

confidence: 96%