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Altai pika (Ochotona alpina) alarm calls: individual acoustic variation and the phenomenon of call-synchronous ear folding behavior

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Abstract

Non-hibernating pikas collect winter food reserves and store them in hay piles. Individualization of alarm calls might allow discrimination between colony members and conspecifics trying to steal food items from a colony pile. We investigated vocal posture, vocal tract length, and individual acoustic variation of alarm calls, emitted by wild-living Altai pikas Ochotona alpina toward a researcher. Recording started when a pika started calling and lasted as long as possible. The alarm call series of 442 individual callers from different colonies consisted of discrete short (0.073–0.157 s), high-frequency (7.31–15.46 kHz), and frequency-modulated calls separated by irregular intervals. Analysis of 442 discrete calls, the second of each series, revealed that 44.34% calls lacked nonlinear phenomena, in 7.02% nonlinear phenomena covered less than half of call duration, and in 48.64% nonlinear phenomena covered more than half of call duration. Peak frequencies varied among individuals but always fitted one of three maxima corresponding to the vocal tract resonance frequencies (formants) calculated for an estimated 45-mm oral vocal tract. Discriminant analysis using variables of 8 calls per series of 36 different callers, each from a different colony, correctly assigned over 90% of the calls to individuals. Consequently, Altai pika alarm calls are individualistic and nonlinear phenomena might further increase this acoustic individualization. Additionally, video analysis revealed a call-synchronous, very fast (0.13–0.23 s) folding, depression, and subsequent re-expansion of the pinna confirming an earlier report of this behavior that apparently contributes to protecting the hearing apparatus from damage by the self-generated high-intensity alarm calls.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the staff of the Natural State Reserve “Khakassian” for the help and support and especially to Y. Semenov, for his assistance in the field. We thank the staff of the Zoological Museum of Moscow University S. Kruskop, V. Lebedev, and D. Galas, for providing museum skull specimens and assistance in handling. We thank the director of Tierpark Berlin and Berlin Zoo, A. Knieriem, for providing the specimen of O. daurica and G. Fritsch and J.B. Kühne of the CT facility at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW), Berlin, Germany, for scanning the O. daurica specimen and providing us the dataset. We thank the four anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments.

Funding

The study was supported by the Russian Science 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, 12/1, Moscow, 119234, Russia

    Ilya A. Volodin & Julia D. Kozhevnikova

  2. Scientific Research Department, Moscow Zoo, B. Gruzinskaya str., 1, Moscow, 123242, Russia

    Ilya A. Volodin & Elena V. Volodina

  3. Department of Structural and Functional Genomics, Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Vavilov str., 32, Moscow, 119991, Russia

    Vera A. Matrosova

  4. Department of Reproduction Management, Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW), Alfred-Kowalke-Str. 17, Berlin, Germany

    Roland Frey

  5. Scientific Research Department, Khakasskiy State Nature Reserve, Tsukanov str., 164, Abakan, 655017, Russia

    Inna L. Isaeva

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  1. Ilya A. Volodin
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This study has been conducted in collaboration with the staff of the Natural State Reserve “Khakassian,” in accordance with its research projects, with its ethical and animal welfare standards and with the Guidelines for the treatment of animals in behavioral research and teaching (Anim Behav, 2006, 71:245–253). Animal disturbance was kept at a minimum, and no animal was injured as a result of our work. The conservation status of the Altai pika is “Least Concern,” so there is no need for special conservation measures across its distribution area. The data collection protocol no. 2011-36 was approved by the Committee of Bioethics of Lomonosov Moscow State University.

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Volodin, I.A., Matrosova, V.A., Frey, R. et al. Altai pika (Ochotona alpina) alarm calls: individual acoustic variation and the phenomenon of call-synchronous ear folding behavior. Sci Nat 105, 40 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-018-1567-8

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