Animal communication ≈ Animal communication
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Sexual selection on male vocal fundamental frequency in humans and other anthropoids Open
In many primates, including humans, the vocalizations of males and females differ dramatically, with male vocalizations and vocal anatomy often seeming to exaggerate apparent body size. These traits may be favoured by sexual selection beca…
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Meaningful call combinations and compositional processing in the southern pied babbler Open
Significance Human language is syntactic in its nature: meaningful words are assembled into larger meaningful phrases or sentences. How unique this ability is to humans remains surprisingly unclear. A considerable body of work has indicate…
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The origins of acoustic communication in vertebrates Open
Acoustic communication is crucial to humans and many other tetrapods, including birds, frogs, crocodilians, and mammals. However, large-scale patterns in its evolution are largely unstudied. Here, we address several fundamental questions a…
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Flexible usage and social function in primate vocalizations Open
Significance When compared with humans, nonhuman primates have small vocal repertoires that show little acoustic modification during development. These limitations pose a dilemma for those interested in the evolution of language. Recent re…
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New insights from female bird song: towards an integrated approach to studying male and female communication roles Open
Historically, bird song has been regarded as a sex-specific signalling trait; males sing to attract females and females drive the evolution of signal exaggeration by preferring males with ever more complex songs. This view provides no func…
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The neurobiology of innate, volitional and learned vocalizations in mammals and birds Open
Vocalization is an ancient vertebrate trait essential to many forms of communication, ranging from courtship calls to free verse. Vocalizations may be entirely innate and evoked by sexual cues or emotional state, as with many types of call…
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Meaning, intention, and inference in primate vocal communication Open
Two core questions in the study of speech evolution are whether nonhuman primate signals should be conceived as referential, and what the role of social cognition is in primate communication. Current evidence suggests that the structure of…
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Social communication in bats Open
Bats represent one of the most diverse mammalian orders, not only in terms of species numbers, but also in their ecology and life histories. Many species are known to use ephemeral and/or unpredictable resources that require substantial in…
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Communication in Dogs Open
Dogs have a vast and flexible repertoire of visual, acoustic, and olfactory signals that allow an expressive and fine tuned conspecific and dog–human communication. Dogs use this behavioural repertoire when communicating with humans, emplo…
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Why Are No Animal Communication Systems Simple Languages? Open
Individuals of some animal species have been taught simple versions of human language despite their natural communication systems failing to rise to the level of a simple language. How is it, then, that some animals can master a version of…
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Semantic communication in birds: evidence from field research over the past two decades Open
What do animal signals mean? This is a central question in studies on animal communication. Research into the semantics of animal signals began in 1980, with evidence that alarm calls of a non‐human primate designated predators as external…
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When the birds go unheard: highway noise disrupts information transfer between bird species Open
Highway infrastructure and accompanying vehicle noise is associated with decreased wildlife populations in adjacent habitats. Noise masking of animal communication is an oft-cited potential mechanism underlying species loss in sound-pollut…
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Song hybridization events during revolutionary song change provide insights into cultural transmission in humpback whales Open
Cultural processes occur in a wide variety of animal taxa, from insects to cetaceans. The songs of humpback whales are one of the most striking examples of the transmission of a cultural trait and social learning in any nonhuman animal. To…
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Animal cognition and the evolution of human language: why we cannot focus solely on communication Open
Studies of animal communication are often assumed to provide the ‘royal road’ to understanding the evolution of human language. After all, language is the pre-eminent system of human communication: doesn't it make sense to search for its p…
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Dolphins simplify their vocal calls in response to increased ambient noise Open
Ocean noise varies spatially and temporally and is driven by natural and anthropogenic processes. Increased ambient noise levels can cause signal masking and communication impairment, affecting fitness and recruitment success. However, the…
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Predator-Prey Interactions and Eavesdropping in Vibrational Communication Networks Open
Due to human perceptional bias in favor of air-borne sounds, substrate-borne vibrational signaling has been traditionally regarded as a highly specialized, inherently short-range and, consequently, a private communication channel, free fro…
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Female Song Occurs in Songbirds with More Elaborate Female Coloration and Reduced Sexual Dichromatism Open
Elaborate plumages and songs in male birds provide classic evidence for Darwinian sexual selection. However, trait elaboration in birds is not gender-restricted: female song has recently been revealed as a taxonomically-widespread trait wi…
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Call combinations, vocal exchanges and interparty movement in wild bonobos Open
The vocal repertoire of nonhuman primates is largely fixed. Individuals produce their species-specific vocalizations from a young age, and do not acquire new call types over their lifetime. Despite these limitations, however, monkeys and a…
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Chemical strategies to deal with ants: a review of mimicry, camouflage, propaganda, and phytomimesis by ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) and other arthropods Open
Chemical tactics by ant social parasites, including myrmecophiles, often relate to ant nestmate recognition and alarm communication. The strict nestmate recognition system in ants can be disrupted by chemical imitation of the nestmate reco…
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Investigating Empathy-Like Responding to Conspecifics’ Distress in Pet Dogs Open
Empathy covers a wide range of phenomena varying according to the degree of cognitive complexity involved; ranging from emotional contagion, defined as the sharing of others' emotional states, to sympathetic concern requiring animals to ha…
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Vocal behaviour predicts mating success in giant pandas Open
Surprisingly little is known about how mammal vocal signals are used to achieve behavioural synchrony in the lead up to copulation. The ability to signal short-term fluctuations in arousal levels and behavioural intention is likely to be p…
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Applications of bioacoustics in animal ecology Open
In communication animals use a full range of signals: acoustic, visual, chemical, electrical and tactile. The processes involved in how and why animals communicate have long held veritable fascination for scientists. A branch of science co…
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Sex differences in vocal communication of freely interacting adult mice depend upon behavioral context Open
Ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) are believed to play a critical role in mouse communication. Although mice produce USVs in multiple contexts, signals emitted in reproductive contexts are typically attributed solely to the male mouse. Only …
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Crowd vocal learning induces vocal dialects in bats: Playback of conspecifics shapes fundamental frequency usage by pups Open
Vocal learning, the substrate of human language acquisition, has rarely been described in other mammals. Often, group-specific vocal dialects in wild populations provide the main evidence for vocal learning. While social learning is often …
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Honey Bee Inhibitory Signaling Is Tuned to Threat Severity and Can Act as a Colony Alarm Signal Open
Alarm communication is a key adaptation that helps social groups resist predation and rally defenses. In Asia, the world's largest hornet, Vespa mandarinia, and the smaller hornet, Vespa velutina, prey upon foragers and nests of the Asian …
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Songbird dynamics under the sea: acoustic interactions between humpback whales suggest song mediates male interactions Open
The function of song has been well studied in numerous taxa and plays a role in mediating both intersexual and intrasexual interactions. Humpback whales are among few mammals who sing, but the role of sexual selection on song in this speci…
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Functional Diversity of Vibrational Signaling Systems in Insects Open
Communication by substrate-borne mechanical waves is widespread in insects. The specifics of vibrational communication are related to heterogeneous natural substrates that strongly influence signal transmission. Insects generate vibrationa…
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Sound sequences in birdsong: how much do birds really care? Open
The complex and melodic nature of many birds' songs has raised interest in potential parallels between avian vocal sequences and human speech. The similarities between birdsong and speech in production and learning are well established, bu…
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Sophisticated Communication in the Brazilian Torrent Frog Hylodes japi Open
Intraspecific communication in frogs plays an important role in the recognition of conspecifics in general and of potential rivals or mates in particular and therefore with relevant consequences for pre-zygotic reproductive isolation. We i…
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Acoustic adaptation to city noise through vocal learning by a songbird Open
Anthropogenic noise imposes novel selection pressures, especially on species that communicate acoustically. Many animals—including insects, frogs, whales and birds—produce sounds at higher frequencies in areas with low-frequency noise poll…