Bioacoustic recording and playback system

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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.