Bioacoustic recording and playback system

动物声通信的研究需要能够可靠地记录、分析和回放动物信号的设备。我的实验室对地松鼠的报警叫声做了大量的研究，不仅揭示了交流在动物社会系统中的重要作用，而且揭示了松鼠卓越的认知能力。地松鼠发出的警报不是简单地说“小心”，而是为群体成员提供有关潜在捕食者距离的准确信息，以及有关呼叫者身份和位置的信息。呼叫接受者使用这些信息来调整他们的反应，根据过去信号者的可靠程度，计算信号者的数量，总的来说，采取一种行为反应来降低他们被捕食者杀死的风险。我们最近还发现，地松鼠会发出超声波警报，但缺乏必要的现代设备来进行进一步的研究，检查这些呼叫的结构和功能。因此，目前的研究工具和仪器拨款提案旨在获得必要的资金，以购买基于笔记本电脑的记录、分析和回放系统，以进行动物交流的高级研究。所提出的系统将允许我们记录完整的超声波呼叫，并随后执行回放，就像我们对声音呼叫所做的那样，以确定超声波呼叫包含的信息。此外，该系统将允许我们进行实验，以揭示这些高频（因此是短距离）呼叫是否有选择性地警告邻近亲属（即……）是裙带关系信号)，或者防止呼叫者被对超声波频率不敏感的捕食者发现。最后，提出的系统将允许我们确定声音或超声波报警呼叫是否编码有关潜在捕食者特定属性的特定信息。

Research on animal acoustic communication requires equipment that can reliably record, analyse, and play back animal signals. My lab has done extensive work on the alarm vocalizations of ground squirrels, which has revealed not only the critical role of communication to animal social systems, but also the remarkable cognitive abilities of the squirrels. Rather than simply saying "look out", alarm calls of ground squirrels provide group members with exacting information about the distance to a potential predator, and information regarding the identity and location of the caller. Call recipients use such information to adjust their response according to how reliable signalers have been in the past, to count the number of signalers, and in general, to adopt a behavioural response that reduces their risk of being killed by a predator. We have also recently discovered that ground squirrels produce ultrasonic alarm calls, but lack the modern equipment necessary to conduct further research examining the structure and function of these calls. Thus, the current Research Tools and Instrumentation Grant proposal seeks to obtain funds necessary to purchase a laptop-based recording, analysis and playback system necessary to conduct advanced research on animal communication. The proposed system will allow us to record complete ultrasonic calling bouts, and subsequently perform playbacks as we've done with audible calls to determine what information ultrasonic calls contain. Further, the system will allow us to conduct experiments that will reveal whether these high frequency - and thus short range - calls function to selectively warn neighbouring relatives (i.e.. are nepotistic signals), or prevent the caller from being detected by predators that are insensitive to ultrasonic frequencies. Finally, the proposed system will allow us to determine whether either audible or ultrasonic alarm calls encode specific information about the specific attributes of potential predators.