@article {53401, title = {Working hypotheses on the meaning of general alarm calls}, journal = {Animal Behaviour}, volume = {142}, year = {2018}, month = {Jan-08-2018}, pages = {113 - 118}, abstract = {

General calls are present in the vocal repertoire of a great number of animal species. Because of their lack of context specificity, they are typically argued to possess blurred meaning, or even no meaning at all. Although recent animal cognition studies have demonstrated a growing interest in these vocalizations, there is currently no clear definition of general calls, and their meaning is seldom discussed. Here, we propose a definition of general calls, and review various hypotheses regarding their meaning, focusing on alert contexts. We first discuss the hypothesis that general alarm calls have a general alert meaning. Second, we review an alternative view, that general calls in fact have a specific meaning. With this review, we encourage further research that could help delve into the mechanisms underlying vocal production and comprehension and would improve our understanding of general and specific calls in animals.

}, keywords = {alarm call, context, functional referentiality, general alarm call, informativity principle, Meaning, semantics, vocalization}, issn = {00033472}, doi = {10.1016/j.anbehav.2018.06.008}, url = {https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0003347218301908https://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:S0003347218301908?httpAccept=text/xmlhttps://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:S0003347218301908?httpAccept=text/plain}, author = {Dezecache, Guillaume and Berthet, M{\'e}lissa} } @article {53371, title = {Kinship and association do not explain vocal repertoire variation among individual sperm whales or social units}, journal = {Animal Behaviour}, volume = {145}, year = {2018}, month = {Jan-11-2018}, pages = {131 - 140}, abstract = {

Vocal learning often results in distinct dialects among individuals or groups, but the forces selecting for these phenomena remain unclear. Female sperm whales, Physeter macrocephalus, and their dependent offspring live in matrilineally based social units, and the units associate within sympatric clans. The clans have distinctive dialects of codas (patterns of clicks), as do, to a lesser extent, the units within clans. We examined the similarity of coda repertoires of individuals and units from the eastern Caribbean and related these to patterns of kinship and social association. Similarity in coda repertoires was not discernibly correlated with close kinship or association rates for either individuals or units (matrix correlation coefficients \<0.12 for all tests using whole repertoires and data from all units). This supports the prevailing hypothesis that these vocalizations are culturally transmitted. The lack of correlation also indicates that vocal learning may occur broadly within clans, rather than preferentially from close kin or close social associates within social units, or that biases in vocal learning at lower levels of social structure are diffused by clan-level processes, such as conformity. Finally, an absence of signals of kinship in vocalization patterns suggests that a different mechanism, perhaps familiarity through repeated association, mediates kin selection among sperm whales.

}, keywords = {dialect, kinship, matrilineal, social unit, sperm whale, vocal learning, vocalization}, issn = {00033472}, doi = {10.1016/j.anbehav.2018.09.011}, url = {https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0003347218302811https://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:S0003347218302811?httpAccept=text/xmlhttps://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:S0003347218302811?httpAccept=text/plain}, author = {Konrad, Christine M. and Frasier, Timothy R. and Rendell, Luke and Whitehead, Hal and Gero, Shane} } @article {52576, title = {Male hyraxes increase countersinging as strangers become {\textquoteleft}nasty neighbours{\textquoteright}}, journal = {Animal Behaviour}, volume = {134}, year = {2017}, month = {Jan-12-2017}, pages = {9 - 14}, abstract = {

Many territorial animals interact less aggressively with neighbours than with strangers, a phenomenon known as the \‘dear enemy\’ effect, although some species show the opposite behaviour. Rock hyraxes, Procavia capensis, are social mammals that communicate via a rich acoustic repertoire. Male hyraxes produce elaborate advertisement calls (i.e. songs) both spontaneously and in response to occasional attention-grabbing events (e.g. pup screams, agonistic interaction), as well as to conspecific male songs. When replying to conspecific songs, male hyraxes tend to respond more to familiar males than to strangers, reflecting the \‘nasty neighbour\’ effect. Our study relates to the general question of why some species respond aggressively towards neighbours, while others are more aggressive towards strangers. We hypothesized that male hyraxes eventually familiarize themselves with a stranger, subsequently perceiving its intentions as highly threatening and deserving of a vocal response. To simulate the presence of a stranger in the area we exposed wild hyrax groups to playbacks of natural songs of un- familiar hyraxes. Male rock hyraxes became more likely to reply to a stranger\&$\#$39;s song over time, but this was independent of the number of times they heard the song. This suggests that either (1) the threat presented by a stranger increases when it is no longer perceived as transient or (2) because listeners do not physically encounter the stranger, they perceive replying aggressively as a low-risk response. Our work implies that species may demonstrate a range of condition-dependent behaviours instead of a dichotomy between the \‘nasty neighbour\’ and \‘dear enemy\’ strategies.

}, keywords = {advertisement, animal communication, floating territory, neighbour-stranger relationships, social mammals, vocalization}, issn = {00033472}, doi = {10.1016/j.anbehav.2017.10.002}, url = {http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S000334721730324X}, author = {Goll, Yael and Demartsev, Vlad and Koren, Lee and Geffen, Eli} }