Flexible alarm calling in meerkats: the role of the social environment and predation urgency
Flexible alarm calling in meerkats: the role of the social environment and predation urgency
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猫鼬的灵活报警：社会环境和捕食紧迫性的作用
DOI：
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发表时间：
2012
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
M. Manser
中科院分区：
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作者：
S. Townsend;Maria W. Rasmussen;T. Clutton‐Brock;M. Manser
在几种脊椎动物中已经证明了灵活的发声，许多工作集中在社会“观众”在解释叫声产生中的变化方面的作用。然而，打电话的决定很可能是外部和内部因素的紧急性质，这些因素在多大程度上结合在一起很少被调查。我们通过研究野生雄性猫鼬(Suricata Suricatta)在不同的社会环境和不同的捕食者遭遇环境中发出的警报叫声来解决这个问题。寻找繁殖机会的雄性(漫游者)被跟踪：1)在自己的群体中，当寻找时2)独自或3)与其他雄性组成联盟。结果表明，同种同种存在影响了逃亡警报和招募呼叫的产生。无论是联盟的漫游者还是漫游者的家乡，单独的漫游者与有相同特征的漫游者相比，不太可能产生逃离警报呼叫。在实验中，男性独居时发出的征兵电话也比在他们的家乡群体中发出的少。在猫鼬安全的时候发出的叫声，总是在没有同种存在的情况下产生的，这表明这些叫声的功能是为了对付捕食者。产生逃逸警报的概率也随着捕食事件的紧迫性而增加。我们的结果表明，报警呼叫产生的变化取决于呼叫被发送给谁，也取决于呼叫者的动机状态。我们认为，在阐明发声产生的潜在机制时忽略了内部和外部因素，可能会导致关于动物发声灵活性的误导性、简约性结论。
Flexible vocal production has been demonstrated in several vertebrate species, with much work focusing on the role of the social "audience" in explaining variation in call production. It is, however, likely that the decision to call is an emergent property of both external and internal factors, and the extent to which these factors are integrated has been little investigated. We addressed this question by examining the production of alarm calls in wild male meerkats (Suricata suricatta) in different social environments and different predator-encounter contexts. Males searching for reproductive opportunities (rovers) were followed 1) in their home group and when prospecting either 2) solitarily or 3) in a coalition with other males. Results showed that conspecific presence influenced the production of flee-alarm and recruitment calls. Solitary rovers were less likely to produce flee-alarm calls compared with when they are with conspecifics, whether coalitionary rovers or the rover’s home group. Experimentally elicited recruitment calls were also produced less when males were solitary than when in their home group. Bark vocalizations, emitted when meerkats were safe, were always produced irrespective of conspecific presence, indicating that these calls function to address predators. The probability of producing flee alarms also increased with the urgency of the predation event. Our results indicate that variation in alarm call production depends on whom the call is addressed to and also on the motivational state of the caller. We argue that neglecting to integrate internal and external factors when elucidating mechanisms underlying vocal production can potentially lead to misguided, parsimonious conclusions regarding vocal flexibility in animals.