Population-Specific Use of the Same Tool-Assisted Alarm Call between Two Wild Orangutan Populations (Pongopygmaeus wurmbii) Indicates Functional Arbitrariness
Population-Specific Use of the Same Tool-Assisted Alarm Call between Two Wild Orangutan Populations (Pongopygmaeus wurmbii) Indicates Functional Arbitrariness
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DOI：
10.1371/journal.pone.0069749
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发表时间：
2013-07-05
期刊：
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Wich, Serge A.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Lameira, Adriano R.;Hardus, Madeleine E.;Wich, Serge A.
模糊性是人类语言的一个基本特征，但却很少成为比较研究的对象。虽然在动物种群之间，具有相同功能的任意信号相对频繁，但具有任意功能的相同信号是罕见的，并且仍然不知道是否与人类语音平行，它可能涉及动物的呼叫产生。为了研究这个问题，我们研究了一种特殊的猩猩警报叫声--吻-吱吱声--以及两种变体--手和树叶吻-吱吱声。在Tuanan（印度尼西亚加里曼丹中部），独立的接吻尖叫声的声学频率与身体大小呈负相关。修改后的变体与感知的威胁相关，并假设增加了感知的发送者的身体大小，因为使用手或树叶降低了亲吻吱吱声的声学频率。我们研究了在相同的背景下，在另一个红毛猩猩种群的相同亚种和部分相似的栖息地在卡邦潘蒂（西加里曼丹，印度尼西亚）使用这些变体。从这个网站的数据相同的分析提供了类似的结果，独立的亲吻，吱吱声，但不同的结果，手和叶亲吻，吱吱声。在卡邦潘蒂，无意识的亲吻尖叫声和团南一样普遍，与身体大小有着相同的关系。然而，在卡邦潘蒂，手吻吱吱声是非常罕见的，而叶子的使用既没有传达更大的身体尺寸，也没有与感知的威胁。这些发现表明这两个网站之间的功能不连续性，因此意味着功能的任意性叶吻吱吱声。这些结果表明，第一次存在的动物信号涉及呼叫生产与任意功能。我们的研究结果与之前的研究一致，认为这些猩猩的叫声变体是社会习得的，并在基于语音和音乐共同祖先的进化理论中调和了手势和叫声的作用。
Arbitrariness is an elementary feature of human language, yet seldom an object of comparative inquiry. While arbitrary signals for the same function are relatively frequent between animal populations across taxa, the same signal with arbitrary functions is rare and it remains unknown whether, in parallel with human speech, it may involve call production in animals. To investigate this question, we examined a particular orangutan alarm call - the kiss-squeak - and two variants - hand and leaf kiss-squeaks. In Tuanan (Central Kalimantan, Indonesia), the acoustic frequency of unaided kiss-squeaks is negatively related to body size. The modified variants are correlated with perceived threat and are hypothesized to increase the perceived body size of the sender, as the use of a hand or leaves lowers the kiss-squeak's acoustic frequency. We examined the use of these variants in the same context in another orangutan population of the same sub-species and with partially similar habitat at Cabang Panti (West Kalimantan, Indonesia). Identical analyses of data from this site provided similar results for unaided kiss-squeaks but dissimilar results for hand and leaf kiss-squeaks. Unaided kiss-squeaks at Cabang Panti were emitted as commonly and showed the same relationship to body size as in Tuanan. However, at Cabang Panti, hand kiss-squeaks were extremely rare, while leaf-use neither conveyed larger body size nor was related to perceived threat. These findings indicate functional discontinuity between the two sites and therefore imply functional arbitrariness of leaf kiss-squeaks. These results show for the first time the existence of animal signals involving call production with arbitrary function. Our findings are consistent with previous studies arguing that these orangutan call variants are socially learned and reconcile the role of gestures and calls within evolutionary theories based on common ancestry for speech and music.