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Quality prevails over identity in the sexually selected vocalisations of an ageing mammal

Briefer, E; Vannoni, E; McElligott, A G (2010). Quality prevails over identity in the sexually selected vocalisations of an ageing mammal. BMC Biology, 8:35.

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Male sexually selected vocalisations generally contain both individuality and quality cues that are crucial in intra- as well as inter-sexual communication. As individuality is a fixed feature whereas male phenotypic quality changes with age, individuality and quality cues may be subjected to different selection pressures over time. Individuality (for example, morphology of the vocal apparatus) and quality (for example, body size and dominance status) can both affect the vocal production mechanism, inducing the same components of vocalisations to convey both kinds of information. In this case, do quality-related changes to the acoustic structure of calls induce a modification of vocal cues to identity from year to year? We investigated this question in fallow deer (Dama dama), in which some acoustic parameters of vocalisations (groans) code for both individuality and quality. RESULTS: We carried out a longitudinal analysis of groan individuality, examining the effects of age and dominance rank on the acoustic structure of groans of the same males recorded during consecutive years. We found both age- and rank-related changes to groans; the minimum values of the highest formant frequencies and the fundamental frequency increased with the age of males and they decreased when males became more dominant. Both age- and rank-related acoustic parameters contributed to individuality. Male quality changed with age, inducing a change in quality-related parameters and thus, a modification of vocal cues to male individuality between years. CONCLUSIONS: The encoding of individuality and quality information in the same components of vocalisations induces a tradeoff between these two kinds of signals over time. Fallow deer vocalisations are honest signals of quality that are not fixed over time but are modified dynamically according to male quality. As they are more reliable cues to quality than to individuality, they may not be used by conspecifics to recognize a given male from one year to another, but potentially used by both sexes to assess male quality during each breeding season.

Additional indexing

Item Type:Journal Article, refereed, original work
Communities & Collections:04 Faculty of Medicine > Institute of Anatomy
07 Faculty of Science > Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies
Dewey Decimal Classification:570 Life sciences; biology
590 Animals (Zoology)
610 Medicine & health
Scopus Subject Areas:Life Sciences > Biotechnology
Life Sciences > Structural Biology
Life Sciences > Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Life Sciences > Physiology
Life Sciences > General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
Life Sciences > General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
Life Sciences > Plant Science
Life Sciences > Developmental Biology
Life Sciences > Cell Biology
Language:English
Date:April 2010
Deposited On:06 Jul 2010 22:49
Last Modified:04 Nov 2024 02:38
Publisher:BioMed Central
ISSN:1741-7015
OA Status:Gold
Free access at:PubMed ID. An embargo period may apply.
Publisher DOI:https://doi.org/10.1186/1741-7007-8-35
PubMed ID:20380690
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