Strong individual distinctiveness across the vocal repertoire of a colonial seabird, the little auk, Alle alle

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For species maintaining long-term social bonds, particularly in complex networks such as dense colonies, vocal cues to identity can be crucial. Here, we investigated the vocal individuality within and across five call types of the little auk: a monogamous, colonial bird with a strong nest fidelity. Calls produced inside the nest over the incubation period were recorded in 2019 and 2020 and assigned to a call type and individual. We extracted a set of 16 acoustic parameters for each vocalization, and seven additional temporal patterns for a complex, multisyllable call. Calls could be reliably assigned to an individual both within and across call types, although classification performance differed between linear and machine learning methods. All call types showed information content theoretically allowing us to distinguish at least 11 individuals, and up to at least 41 for the classic call. The raw acoustic parameters that contributed most information across the five call types (i.e. the five highest potential of individuality coding scores) were peak fundamental frequency, frequency value at the upper limit of the second and first quartiles of energy, sound duration and amplitude modulation rate. We suggest that this strong individuality across call types and parameters is selected for in the species to help maintain monogamous partnerships, and perhaps social bonds with neighbours, over the years.
OriginalsprogEngelsk
TidsskriftAnimal Behaviour
Vol/bind210
Sider (fra-til)199-211
Antal sider13
ISSN0003-3472
DOI
StatusUdgivet - 2024

Bibliografisk note

Funding Information:
Many thanks to Antoine Grissot, who analysed the video material and worked in the field, as well as Dariusz Jakubas, Marion Devogel, Martyna Cendrowska and the members of the 41st, 42nd and 43rd Polish Polar Expeditions for their support in the field; Roger Mundry for sharing his pDFA function code and for advice on statistics; and Michał Cieciora and Przemek Bryndza for their invaluable help with programming issues. This study was funded by grants awarded to the following authors: K.W.J.: grant no. 2017/25/B/NZ8/01417 funded by The National Science Centre (NCN); D.K.: grant no. 2017/26/D/ NZ8/00005 funded by The National Science Centre (NCN); A.O.: University of Gdańsk Grants no. MN 539-D050-B853-21 and UGFirst 533-0C20-GF12-22 .

Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour

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