@article {53372, title = {Temporal structuring of vigilance behaviour by female Thomson{\textquoteright}s gazelles with hidden fawns}, journal = {Animal Behaviour}, volume = {145}, year = {2018}, month = {Jan-11-2018}, pages = {87 - 97}, abstract = {

Prey animals often face a trade-off between investing time in antipredator behaviour and performing self-maintenance activities, such as foraging. Parents face particularly high stakes as they must protect highly vulnerable offspring while also meeting elevated energetic demands. To optimize this trade-off, the risk allocation hypothesis predicts that prey should adjust their antipredator behaviour to reflect temporal fluctuations in risk. That is, they should invest more in antipredator behaviour when risk is high and prioritize other activities when risk is low. Here we investigate whether changes in risk level resulting from periodic fawn exposure drive maternal vigilance patterns in Thomson\&$\#$39;s gazelle, Eudorcas thomsonii. We find that maternal vigilance patterns match the predictions of the risk allocation hypothesis. Mothers are highly vigilant prior to fawn retrieval, when risk of fawn detection by predators is high. They exhibit low levels of vigilance after fawns resume hiding, when certainty of predator absence is high and, therefore, risk is low. We suggest that fawn active periods may function secondarily as a form of predator sampling and that mothers may adjust their vigilance levels in response to information yielded by this sampling.

}, keywords = {antipredator behaviour, gazelle, hiding, maternal behaviour, predation risk, risk allocation hypothesis, Thomson{\textquoteright}s gazelle, ungulate, vigilance}, issn = {00033472}, doi = {10.1016/j.anbehav.2018.09.007}, url = {https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S000334721830277Xhttps://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:S000334721830277X?httpAccept=text/xmlhttps://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:S000334721830277X?httpAccept=text/plain}, author = {Costelloe, Blair R. and Rubenstein, Daniel I.} } @article {50505, title = {Individuality of distress and discomfort calls in neonates with bass voices: Wild-living goitred gazelles ( Gazella subgutturosa) and saiga antelopes ( Saiga tatarica)}, journal = {Ethology}, volume = {123}, year = {2017}, month = {Jan-05-2017}, pages = {386 - 396}, abstract = {

Neonate ruminants produce distress calls when captured by a predator and discomfort milk begging calls when hungry. In many neonate ruminants, the distress and discomfort calls are high-frequency vocalizations, in which the fundamental frequency is the key variable for recognition of their emotional arousal by caregivers. In contrast, in this study, we examine the low-frequency open-mouth distress and discomfort calls in the neonates of two species of wild-living ungulates, which clearly highlight vocal tract resonances (formants). In the goitred gazelle (Gazella subgutturosa), the distress calls were higher in fundamental frequency (f0) and in the first and third formants than the discomfort calls. The accuracy of classifying individuals by variables of distress calls with discriminant function analysis (67\%) was significantly lower than that of discomfort calls (85\%). In the saiga (Saiga tatarica), only the third formant was higher in the distress calls than in the discomfort calls. The accuracy of classifying individuals by variables of distress calls (89\%) did not differ significantly from that of discomfort calls (94\%). Thus, the use of acoustic cues to vocal identity and to the degree of arousal differs between the two species. Calls were significantly more individualistic in the saiga, probably because this species lives in large herds and neonates use a \‘following\’ antipredatory strategy, in which vocal individuality is crucial for mother\–offspring communication. In contrast, goitred gazelles live in smaller groups and neonates use a \‘hiding\’ antipredatory strategy. Accordingly, mothers can rely on additional environmental cues for spotting their young and this may decrease the necessity for individualization of the calls of neonates.

}, keywords = {acoustic behavior, antipredatory strategy, emotional arousal, mother-offspring communication, ruminants, vocal identity}, doi = {10.1111/eth.2017.123.issue-510.1111/eth.12607}, url = {http://doi.wiley.com/10.1111/eth.2017.123.issue-5}, author = {Volodin, Ilya A. and Sibiryakova, Olga V. and Frey, Roland and Efremova, Kseniya O. and Soldatova, Natalia V. and Zuther, Steffen and Kisebaev, Talgat B. and Salemgareev, Albert R. and Volodina, Elena V.} } @article {17270, title = {Remarkable vocal identity in wild-living mother and neonate saiga antelopes: a specialization for breeding in huge aggregations?}, journal = {The Science of Nature}, volume = {104}, year = {2017}, month = {Jan-04-2017}, abstract = {

Saiga antelopes Saiga tatarica tatarica give birth in large aggregations, and offspring follow the herd soon after birth. Herding is advantageous as anti-predator strategy; however, communication between mothers and neonates is strongly complicated in large aggregations. Individual series of nasal and oral contact calls of mother and neonate saiga antelopes were selected from recordings made with automated recording systems placed near the hiding neonates on the saiga breeding grounds in Northern Kazakhstan during synchronized parturitions of 30,000 calving females. We used for comparison of the acoustic structure of nasal and oral contact calls 168 nasal calls of 18 mothers, 192 oral calls of 21 mothers, 78 nasal calls of 16 neonates, and 197 oral calls of 22 neonates. In the oral calls of either mothers or neonates, formant frequencies were higher and the duration was longer than in the nasal calls, whereas fundamental frequencies did not differ between oral and nasal calls. Discriminant function analysis (DFA) based on six acoustic variables, accurately classified individual identity for 99.4\% of oral calls of 18 mothers, for 89.3\% of nasal calls of 18 mothers, and for 94.4\% of oral calls of 18 neonates. The average value of correct classification to individual was higher in mother oral than in mother nasal calls and in mother oral calls than in neonate oral calls; no significant difference was observed between mother nasal and neonate oral calls. Variables mainly responsible for vocal identity were the fundamental frequency and the second and third formants in either mothers or neonates, and in either nasal or oral calls. The high vocal identity of mothers and neonates suggests a powerful potential for the mutual mother-offspring recognition in dense aggregations of saiga antelopes as an important component of their survival strategy.

}, keywords = {maternal care in herds, mother-offspring communication, offspring survival, vocal identity}, issn = {0028-1042}, doi = {10.1007/s00114-017-1433-0}, url = {http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00114-017-1433-0}, author = {Sibiryakova, Olga V. and Volodin, Ilya A. and Frey, Roland and Zuther, Steffen and Kisebaev, Talgat B. and Salemgareev, Albert R. and Volodina, Elena V.} }