Dear colleagues,
On behalf of my co-authors, I am pleased to inform you our new
publication in /Animal Cognition/:
*Mutual mother–pup vocal recognition in the highly colonial Cape fur
seal: evidence of discrimination of calls with a high acoustic similarity*
Mathilde Martin, Tess Gridley, Dorothy Fourie, Simon Elwen, Isabelle
Charrier
Abstract:
The Cape fur seal (/Arctocephalus pusillus pusillus/) is one of the most
colonial mammal species in the world. Females exclusively nurse their
pups for 9 to 11 months, during which they alternate frequent foraging
trips at sea with suckling periods ashore. The survival of the pup thus
depends on the ability of the mother–pup pair to relocate each other
among thousands of individuals. Previous work has demonstrated identity
information encoded in pup-attraction (PAC) and female-attraction (FAC)
calls. Here, we investigated vocal recognition between mother and pup
using playbacks of PAC and FAC performed during the breeding season at
Pelican Point, Namibia. Both females and pups were able to specifically
discriminate the voice of their pup or their mother from non-affiliated
pup or mother. Females were able to memorize previous versions of their
pup’s calls (evidence of recognition up to 73 days after pup’s calls
recording). Vocal recognition was demonstrated in pups from 1- to
13-weeks old age. Females and pups did not respond differently to the
non-filial or non-mother (for pups) stimulus even if it had a strong
acoustic similarity with the filial or mother stimulus. This suggested
that Cape fur seal mother–pup pairs have high perceptual and cognitive
abilities, allowing individuals to identify kin’s vocalizations in a
very noisy and confusing environment.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or would
request the PDF
Best regards,
--
*Mathilde MARTIN*
PhD Student
[email protected]
Acoustic Communications Team, Department Cognition & Network Neuroscience
NeuroPSI - Paris-Saclay Institute of Neuroscience
151 rue de la Rotonde, 91400 Saclay, FRANCE
https://neuropsi.cnrs.fr
Tel: +33 (0)1 69 82 63 56
Email: [email protected]
Website: https://mathildemartin-research.com/
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