In:
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, The Royal Society, Vol. 289, No. 1978 ( 2022-07-13)
Abstract:
The ability to vary the characteristics of one's voice is a critical feature of human communication. Understanding whether and how animals change their calls will provide insights into the evolution of language. We asked to what extent the vocalizations of penguins, a phylogenetically distant species from those capable of explicit vocal learning, are flexible and responsive to their social environment. Using a principal components (PCs) analysis, we reduced 14 vocal parameters of penguin's contact calls to four PCs, each comprising highly correlated parameters and which can be categorized as fundamental frequency, formant frequency, frequency modulation, and amplitude modulation rate and duration. We compared how these differed between individuals with varying degrees of social interactions: same-colony versus different-colony, same colony over 3 years and partners versus non-partners. Our analyses indicate that the more penguins experience each other's calls, the more similar their calls become over time, that vocal convergence requires a long time and relative stability in colony membership, and that partners' unique social bond may affect vocal convergence differently than non-partners. Our results suggest that this implicit form of vocal plasticity is perhaps more widespread across the animal kingdom than previously thought and may be a fundamental capacity of vertebrate vocalization.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
0962-8452
,
1471-2954
DOI:
10.1098/rspb.2022.0626
Language:
English
Publisher:
The Royal Society
Publication Date:
2022
detail.hit.zdb_id:
1460975-7
SSG:
12
SSG:
25
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