Social effects on vocal ontogeny in an ungulate, the goat, Capra hircus
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Social effects on vocal ontogeny in an ungulate, the goat, Capra hircus. / Briefer, Elodie F.; McElligott, Alan G.
In: Animal Behaviour, Vol. 83, No. 4, 2012, p. 991-1000.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Social effects on vocal ontogeny in an ungulate, the goat, Capra hircus
AU - Briefer, Elodie F.
AU - McElligott, Alan G.
N1 - Funding Information: We are grateful to E. Antill, C. Booth, E. Cant, C. Charpin, K. Cho Geun-A, C. Farrington, F. Galbraith, E. Landy, M. Padilla de la Torre and M. Wang for assistance, to B. Charlton and R. Mundry for statistical advice, and to L. Hollén, M. Knörnschild, H. Kunc, M. Manser, F. Nottebohm and S. Rossiter for helpful comments on the manuscript. We thank D. Reby for providing the custom-built program in Praat. E. Briefer is funded by a Swiss National Science Foundation fellowship . We acknowledge the financial support of the University of London Central Research Fund. We thank the staff of White Post Farm ( http://whitepostfarmcentre.co.uk/ ) for their help and free access to the animals.
PY - 2012
Y1 - 2012
N2 - Vocal plasticity is the ability of an individual to modify its vocalizations according to its environment. Humans benefit from an extreme form of vocal plasticity, allowing us to produce a wide range of sounds. This capacity to modify sounds has been shown in three bird orders and in a few nonhuman mammal species, all characterized by complex vocal communication systems. In other mammals, there is no evidence for a social impact on vocal development. We investigated whether contact calls were affected by social environment and kinship during early ontogeny in goats, a highly vocal and social species. To test the influence of social environment on kid vocalizations, we compared half siblings raised in the same or different groups. The effect of kinship on calls was assessed by comparing full siblings with half siblings. Calls of half siblings were more similar when they had been raised in the same social group than in different groups, and converged with time. Full siblings had more similar calls than half siblings. The group-specific indicators in kid vocalizations show that goat call ontogeny is affected by their social environment. This suggests that vocal plasticity could be more widespread in mammals than previously believed, showing a possible early pathway in the evolution of vocal learning leading to human language.
AB - Vocal plasticity is the ability of an individual to modify its vocalizations according to its environment. Humans benefit from an extreme form of vocal plasticity, allowing us to produce a wide range of sounds. This capacity to modify sounds has been shown in three bird orders and in a few nonhuman mammal species, all characterized by complex vocal communication systems. In other mammals, there is no evidence for a social impact on vocal development. We investigated whether contact calls were affected by social environment and kinship during early ontogeny in goats, a highly vocal and social species. To test the influence of social environment on kid vocalizations, we compared half siblings raised in the same or different groups. The effect of kinship on calls was assessed by comparing full siblings with half siblings. Calls of half siblings were more similar when they had been raised in the same social group than in different groups, and converged with time. Full siblings had more similar calls than half siblings. The group-specific indicators in kid vocalizations show that goat call ontogeny is affected by their social environment. This suggests that vocal plasticity could be more widespread in mammals than previously believed, showing a possible early pathway in the evolution of vocal learning leading to human language.
KW - Call convergence
KW - Capra hircus
KW - Goat
KW - Mammal
KW - Vocal communication
KW - Vocal learning
KW - Vocal plasticity
U2 - 10.1016/j.anbehav.2012.01.020
DO - 10.1016/j.anbehav.2012.01.020
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:84858753613
VL - 83
SP - 991
EP - 1000
JO - Animal Behaviour
JF - Animal Behaviour
SN - 0003-3472
IS - 4
ER -
ID: 356631400