Long-term playback devices and automated digital recorders to study vocal learning and animal communication by four collaborative research groups

声音学习，即幼年动物通过听成年动物的声音来学习声音的过程，已经在六种动物中进化，最明显的是人类和鸣禽。鸣禽提供了一个令人信服的系统来研究声乐学习，因为它们成熟迅速，它们的学习环境可以通过实验来操纵，它们学到的歌曲对它们成年后的生殖活动特别重要。虽然大多数关于歌曲学习的研究都涉及实验室研究，但我们已经开发了创新的基于现场的技术来研究野生种群的声乐学习。我们要求NSERC支持两个新的基于领域的技术，研究歌曲学习和歌曲功能。(1)一个移动的扬声器群，由40个可编程数字播放设备组成，模拟40个互动的成年鸣禽的声音。(2)一系列自主数字记录仪，可以记录鸟类在种群水平上进行实验操作之前、期间和之后的行为。这两个组件都坚固耐用，耐候，并能够部署持续数周至数月，时间尺度适合歌曲学习过程。该设备将促进四名共同申请人在三所不同的安大略大学进行一系列开创性的研究，直接涉及4名PDF，8名博士，4名硕士和50名理科学生在未来十年。第一个项目涉及实验性地引入新的歌曲，以岛屿人口的麻雀异常高的网站philopatry，我们将使用回放来模拟不同类型的歌曲导师，我们将使用录音机来评估什么样的实验歌曲时，鸟类从迁移回来。因此，我们将在野生动物种群中进行第一次基于实地的文化进化实验。第二个项目涉及实验模拟的互动男性和女性导师在二重唱热带弗伦斯，进行第一次实验，女性和二重唱歌曲的学习。另外五个项目涉及扬声器职业实验，以研究温带鸟类的歌唱风格的功能，热带鸟类的声乐二重奏的功能，以及雄性密度在lekking鸟类和青蛙中的重要性。

Vocal learning, the process where young animals learn sounds by listening to the vocalizations of adults, has evolved in six groups of animals, most notably in humans and songbirds. Songbirds provide a compelling system for studying vocal learning because they mature quickly, their learning environment can be manipulated experimentally, and their learned songs are particularly important to their reproductive activities as adults. Whereas most research on song learning has involved laboratory studies, we have developed innovative field-based technologies for studying vocal learning in wild populations. We request NSERC support for two new field-based technologies to study song learning and song function. (1) A mobile loudspeaker cluster consisting of 40 programmable digital playback devices that simulate the voices of 40 interactive adult songbirds. (2) An array of autonomous digital recorders that can document the behaviour of birds before, during, and after experimental manipulations at the population level. Both components are rugged, weatherproof, and capable of deployments lasting weeks to months, a timescale appropriate to the song learning process. This equipment will facilitate a series of groundbreaking studies by the four co-applicants at three different Ontario universities, directly involving 4 PDFs, 8 PhD, 4 MSc, and 50 BSc students over the next decade. The first project involves experimental introduction of novel songs to an island population of sparrows with unusually high site philopatry; we will use playback to simulate different types of song tutors and we will use the recorders to evaluate what experimental songs are learned when birds return from migration. We will thereby conduct the first field-based experiment on cultural evolution in a wild animal population. The second project involves experimental simulation of interactive male and female tutors in duetting tropical wrens, to conduct the first experiment on female and duet song learning. Five additional projects involve speaker occupation experiments to study the function of singing styles in temperate birds, the function of vocal duets in tropical birds, and the importance of male density in lekking birds and frogs.