What the hyena's laugh tells: Sex, age, dominance and individual signature in the giggling call of Crocuta crocuta

BMC Ecology

Research Article

Mary Weldele¹  Stephen E Glickman¹  Nicolas Mathevon²  Aaron Koralek³  Frédéric E Theunissen⁴ 

[1] Department of Psychology, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, USA;Department of Integrative Biology, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, USA;Equipe 'Neuro-Ethologie Sensorielle', CNPS, CNRS UMR, Université de Saint-Etienne, 8195, Saint-Etienne, France;Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, CNPS, UMR, 8195, France;Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, USA;Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, USA;Department of Psychology, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, USA;

关键词: Fundamental Frequency;    Discriminant Function;    Letrozole;    Finasteride;    Discriminant Function Analysis;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1472-6785-10-9

 received in 2009-10-19, accepted in 2010-03-30,  发布年份 2010

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundAmong mammals living in social groups, individuals form communication networks where they signal their identity and social status, facilitating social interaction. In spite of its importance for understanding of mammalian societies, the coding of individual-related information in the vocal signals of non-primate mammals has been relatively neglected. The present study focuses on the spotted hyena Crocuta crocuta, a social carnivore known for its complex female-dominated society. We investigate if and how the well-known hyena's laugh, also known as the giggle call, encodes information about the emitter.ResultsBy analyzing acoustic structure in both temporal and frequency domains, we show that the hyena's laugh can encode information about age, individual identity and dominant/subordinate status, providing cues to receivers that could enable assessment of the social position of an emitting individual.ConclusionsThe range of messages encoded in the hyena's laugh is likely to play a role during social interactions. This call, together with other vocalizations and other sensory channels, should ensure an array of communication signals that support the complex social system of the spotted hyena. Experimental studies are now needed to decipher precisely the communication network of this species.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Mathevon et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2010. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.