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Bioacoustic Articles in Behaviour 143, 12 (December 2006)

To: "Bioacoustic-L" <>
Subject: Bioacoustic Articles in Behaviour 143, 12 (December 2006)
From: "Frank Veit" <>
Date: Sun, 14 Jan 2007 11:28:09 +0100 (MET)
Behaviour 143, 12 (December 2006)
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/brill/beh/2006/00000143/00000012

Couldridge, VCK & MJ van Staaden (2006) Female preferences for male calling songs in the bladder grasshopper Bullacris membracioides. Behaviour 143: 1439-1456.
Baker, MC & DE Gammon (2006) Persistence and change of vocal signals in 
natural populations of chickadees: annual sampling of the gargle call over 
eight seasons. Behaviour 143: 1473-1509.
Poesel, A & T Dabelsteen (2006) Three vocalization types in the blue tit 
Cyanistes caeruleus: a test of the different signal-value hypothesis. 
Behaviour 143: 1529-1545.
Nuechterlein, GL & D Buitron (2006) Advertising by western grebes: 
bout-length variability and signal confusion in a multiple-use call. 
Behaviour 143: 1547-1562.

Abstracts

Couldridge, VCK & MJ van Staaden (2006) Female preferences for male calling songs in the bladder grasshopper Bullacris membracioides. Behaviour 143: 1439-1456.
Male acoustic signals and the information they convey are often critical 
determinants of female mate choice. Bladder grasshoppers are one of numerous 
orthopteran taxa utilizing sound as the basis of courtship and ultimately 
mating. However, despite the extreme specializations for long-distance 
acoustic communication in this family, female mating preferences for male 
calls have not been previously investigated. Here we examine female acoustic 
responses to playbacks of male calls in Bullacris membracioides. Females 
were tested in three separate contexts, viz. response to conspecific calls 
of different individuals, response to degraded conspecific calls, and 
response to the calls of two heterospecifics. Female response was 
significantly correlated with seven of eight measured call features within 
B. membracioides, indicating sexual selection to be operating in this 
species. Females also responded to conspecific calls with degradation levels 
equivalent to a male calling 150 m away, but intensity equivalent to one at 
25 m, identifying call amplitude rather than degradation as the factor 
limiting female response. However, as response decreased with increasing 
call degradation, signal quality remains a factor in female preference. 
Calls of the sister taxon B. intermedia were equally attractive to B. 
membracioides females as were conspecific calls, while the more distinct 
calls of B. serrata were less preferred than those of both B. membracioides 
and B. intermedia. This indicates a lack of discriminatory ability against a 
similar sounding heterospecific.
Baker, MC & DE Gammon (2006) Persistence and change of vocal signals in 
natural populations of chickadees: annual sampling of the gargle call over 
eight seasons. Behaviour 143: 1473-1509.
A study of the gargle call, an agonistic call of the black-capped chickadee 
Poecile atricapillus, for eight successive fall/winter seasons in three 
resident populations in Colorado (USA) revealed the following: (1) 
Individuals had repertoires of calls averaging 8.1 distinct types per bird 
(range 2-18). (2) Among individuals in a local population many calls shared 
some of the component syllables constituting the whole gargle calls; often 
the shared syllables occurred in different locations in the sequences of 
syllables (syntax) making up the calls. (3) Individuals also shared many of 
the same calls (identical or near identical syllable sequences); thus in a 
local sample the ensemble of call types in the population (the population 
repertoire) could be found by recording less than 10 birds. (4) In each 
population, the ensemble of gargle call types found in a given season 
consisted of a core group of about 10 kinds of gargle calls that persisted 
over all or nearly all the eight seasons of the study, but also the ensemble 
included a number of call types that were present for only one or a few 
seasons, or that occurred intermittently across time. (5) The great majority 
of call types that were lost from a population were explained by the loss of 
individual birds (carriers) by emigration or death. (6) The great majority 
of call types new in a population in any given season were explained by the 
occurrence of a new bird in the sample (local recruitment or immigration). 
(7) Both qualitative classification of gargle syllables and whole gargle 
calls by the method of visual inspection of sound spectrograms and automated 
quantitative analysis of acoustic features of syllables and calls were 
carried out in some examples, and these comparisons gave highly concordant 
results.
Long-term studies of cultural evolution of non-song calls are infrequent but 
important because the sources and strength of social selection on non-song 
vocalizations are often likely to differ from those social factors 
influencing cultural evolution in territorial songs, the more often studied 
kind of bird acoustic signals. As a primary finding of this study we showed, 
using fine-grained measurements of acoustic variables, that a population 
retains a set of core gargle groups, each group representing a cultural 
tradition (behavioral lineage) exhibiting virtually no drift in detailed 
structure across eight consecutive seasons. In a small set of samples of 
core groups going back to 1988, there also was no evidence of change within 
a vocal tradition. These results suggest the hypothesis of strong canalizing 
social selection on the acoustic structure of gargles.
Poesel, A & T Dabelsteen (2006) Three vocalization types in the blue tit 
Cyanistes caeruleus: a test of the different signal-value hypothesis. 
Behaviour 143: 1529-1545.
Many songbird species use a repertoire of different song types in 
close-range interactions. In male blue tits, Cyanistes caeruleus, this 
includes songs with and without trill as well as scolding-like 
vocalizations. We here investigate using playback experiments whether these 
vocalization types are used at different stages during aggressive 
interactions, which may be reflected in differential responses of receivers. 
We predict that territory owning receivers will vary their strength of 
response with the vocalization type of a simulated intruder and that an 
aggressive territorial response may include song type matching, i.e. the use 
of the same vocalization type as the intruder. Supporting the 
different-signal value hypothesis, scolding-like playback elicited a 
stronger approach response of focal males than playback of songs with or 
without trill. There was no difference in song rate nor do songs without 
trill elicit a different strength of response than songs with trill. Males 
did not differ significantly in the amount of song type matching between the 
treatments but males that landed on the loudspeaker with playback of either 
songs without trill or scolding-like vocalizations did not match playback 
songs at all. This suggests a trade-off between approach and song type 
matching where song type matching is superfluous during very close 
approaches. Our results may suggest that in the blue tit threat display may 
be graded from songs with or without trill to scolding-like vocalizations 
and eventual attack of an intruder.
Nuechterlein, GL & D Buitron (2006) Advertising by western grebes: 
bout-length variability and signal confusion in a multiple-use call. 
Behaviour 143: 1547-1562.
Studies of song variability in birds have contributed greatly to our 
understanding of how animals use vocal signals to communicate information 
concerning their individual identity, species, sex, and territorial or 
pairing status to other members of the population. Most of these studies 
have focused on the songs of male passerine songbirds, where learning plays 
an important role in the development of song variability. Here we examine 
variability within a multi-functional call of a nonpasserine species, the 
western grebe (Aechmophorus occidentalis). In this observational study, we 
focused on variability in the lengths of consecutive call-bouts given by 
individuals within different behavioral contexts. Early in the breeding 
season, Advertising appeared to serve as an initial contact between two lone 
courting birds, which then approached and eventually engaged one another in 
visual displays. After pairing, however, both sexes continued to use 
Advertising calls in a variety of contexts that involved mate recognition or 
parent-young communication. Cases of signal confusion or misidentification 
of pairing status were rare and generally brief, even within the contexts of 
a large colony. During the pre-nesting period, unpaired birds usually gave 
bouts of 3-5 calls, while paired birds gave 1- or 2-call bouts. During 
incubation, birds returning to their nests often Advertised repeatedly to 
their mate using 1- or 2-call bouts in nearly equal proportions. Replies by 
their mate from the nest were more likely to be 2- or 3-call bouts (74%) and 
appeared to guide the returning bird to the nest. Finally, post-nesting 
parents calling to their young or mates primarily used 1- or 2-call bouts. 
We suggest that bout-length flexibility likely plays an important role in 
providing redundancy in a noisy environment and in limiting signal confusion 
in this multi-functional call. 





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