Dwarf mongoose alarm calls: investigating a complex non-human animal call.

ABSTRACT: Communication plays a vital role in the social lives of many species and varies greatly in complexity. One possible way to increase communicative complexity is by combining signals into longer sequences, which has been proposed as a mechanism allowing species with a limited repertoire to increase their communicative output. In mammals, most studies on combinatoriality have focused on vocal communication in non-human primates. Here, we investigated a potential combination of alarm calls in the dwarf mongoose (Helogale parvula), a non-primate mammal. Acoustic analyses and playback experiments with a wild population suggest: (i) that dwarf mongooses produce a complex call type (T₃) which, at least at the surface level, seems to comprise units that are not functionally differ

SUBMITTER: Collier K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7542821 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature