Sounds scary? Lack of habituation following the presentation of novel sounds.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Animals typically show less habituation to biologically meaningful sounds than to novel signals. We might therefore expect that acoustic deterrents should be based on natural sounds.

Methodology

We investigated responses by western grey kangaroos (Macropus fulignosus) towards playback of natural sounds (alarm foot stomps and Australian raven (Corvus coronoides) calls) and artificial sounds (faux snake hiss and bull whip crack). We then increased rate of presentation to examine whether animals would habituate. Finally, we varied frequency of playback to investigate optimal rates of delivery.

Principal findings

Nine behaviors clustered into five Principal Components. PC factors 1 and 2 (animals alert or looking, or hopping and moving out of area) accounted fo

SUBMITTER: Biedenweg TA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3022648 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature