Trade-offs in the production of animal vocal sequences: insights from the structure of wild chimpanzee pant hoots.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Vocal sequences - utterances consisting of calls produced in close succession - are common phenomena in animal communication. While many studies have explored the adaptive benefits of producing such sequences, very little is known about how the costs and constraints involved in their production affect their form. Here, we investigated this issue in the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) pant hoot, a long and structurally complex vocal sequence comprising four acoustically distinct phases - introduction, build-up, climax and let-down.

Results

We found that in each of these phases, and for the sequence as a whole, there was a negative relationship between the number of calls produced and their average duration. There was also a negative relationship

SUBMITTER: Fedurek P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5674848 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature