Bioacoustic recording and playback system

对动物声音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警报发声做了大量的研究，这不仅揭示了交流对动物社会系统的关键作用，也揭示了松鼠非凡的认知能力。地松鼠的警报叫声为群体成员提供了与潜在捕食者的距离有关的准确信息，以及呼叫者的身份和位置信息，而不是简单地说“小心”。呼叫接受者使用这些信息来根据过去信号员的可靠程度来调整他们的反应，计算信号员的数量，通常情况下，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叫声，但缺乏必要的现代设备来进一步研究这些叫声的结构和功能。因此，目前的研究工具和仪器赠款提案寻求获得必要的资金，以购买开展动物交流高级研究所必需的基于笔记本电脑的记录、分析和回放系统。拟议的系统将允许我们记录完整的超声波呼叫回合，并随后执行回放，就像我们对可听呼叫所做的那样，以确定超声波呼叫包含什么信息。此外，该系统将允许我们进行实验，以揭示这些高频-因此短距离-呼叫是否起作用，以选择性地警告邻居亲属(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检测到。最后，拟议的系统将允许我们确定声音或超声波警报呼叫是否编码了关于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.