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Development of cues to individuality and sex in calls of three crane species: when is it good to be recognizable?

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Abstract

Vocal individuality provides a method of personalization for multiple avian species. However, expression of individual vocal features depends on necessity of recognition. Here we focused on chick vocalizations of demoiselle, Siberian and red-crowned cranes that differ by their body size, developmental rates and some ecological traits. Cranes are territorial during summer, but gather in large flocks during autumn and winter. Nevertheless, parents keep feeding their chicks, even on winter grounds, despite the potential of confusing their own and alien chicks. Here we aimed to compare expression of individuality and sex in calls of three crane species between solitary and gregarious periods of a chick’s life, and between species. We found significant individual patterns of acoustic variables in the calls of all three species both before and after fledging. However, only red-crowned crane chicks increased expression of individuality significantly after the fledging. Also, we found that chicks of all three species significantly increased occurrence of non-linear phenomena, i.e., irregular oscillations of sound-producing membranes (biphonations, sidebands, and deterministic chaos), in their calls after fledging. Non-linear phenomena can be a way of increasing the potential for individual recognition as well as avoiding habituation of parents to their chicks’ calls. The older chicks are, the less their parents feed them, and chicks benefit from keeping the permanent attention of their parents in the course of early ontogeny.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Tatiana Kashentseva, Elina Antonyuk, Svetlana Bobkova, Tatiana and Kirill Postelnykh, Anna Sudakova and Galina Nosachenko for their help with data gathering, Marina Kholodova, Olga Nesterenko and Elena Mudrik for help with PCR DNA sexing analysis, Ilya Volodin and Elena Volodina for constructive comments and discussion, and Leon Maurer for English editing. During our work, we adhered to the “Guidelines for the treatment of animals in behavioural research and teaching” (Anim. Behav. 65:249–255) and to the laws of the Russian Federation, the country where the research was conducted. This study was funded by the Russian Scientific Foundation (Grant 14-14-00237).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Vertebrate Zoology, Faculty of Biology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Vorobievy Gory, 1/12, Moscow, 119991, Russia

    Maria V. Goncharova, Anna V. Klenova & Evgenia V. Bragina

  2. Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1630 Linden Drive, Madison, WI, 53706-1598, USA

    Evgenia V. Bragina

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  1. Maria V. Goncharova
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  2. Anna V. Klenova
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  3. Evgenia V. Bragina
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Correspondence to Maria V. Goncharova.

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Goncharova, M.V., Klenova, A.V. & Bragina, E.V. Development of cues to individuality and sex in calls of three crane species: when is it good to be recognizable?. J Ethol 33, 165–175 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10164-015-0428-6

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