Crested auklets are monogamous seabirds breeding in dense seashore colonies and using all possible communicative channels. Their well-developed olfactory behaviour was investigated in details, however vocal performances are poorly studied. We investigated individual specificity and caller quality encoded in trumpetings – complex vocalizations, performed as advertising displays by males and very rarely by females. In 2008 we recorded 185 calls, 4-20 per individual, from 18 individually colour-banded DNA-sexed male crested auklets on Talan Island (Okhotsk Sea, Russia). Trumpetings included two parts: the high-frequency introduction and the main part with 2-7 low-frequency bark-like calls alternated with 1-4 high-frequency calls. Discriminant analysis with 8 time and frequency parameters included into analysis, showed 98.7% correct assignment to individual. Parameters of introduction were more individually-specific than parameters of the main part. We found a positive correlation between body mass of a caller' and the duration of the main part and a negative correlation between body mass and frequencies of the high-frequency calls of the main part (Pearson correlation, r=0.898, p=0.000 and r=-0.719; p=0.013). Video and audio analysis showed that the high-ranked males, advertising on the stone tops produced the high-frequency calls of the main part lower in frequency relative those of males advertising on the stone bottoms (MANOVA, F1,139=64.7, p=0.000). We conclude that trumpetings of crested auklets provides information about individuality and quality of a caller and together with specific odor appears to be an important component of complex social behaviour of this species.
Communicating individuality and caller quality with trumpetings in the highly social seabird crested auklet Aethia cristatella [abstract]
(2012).
Communicating individuality and caller quality with trumpetings in the highly social seabird crested auklet Aethia cristatella [abstract]. Bioacoustics,
Volume 21
(1):
40
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