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Effect of Social Environment on Acoustic Variables and Occurrence of Trumpet Calls of the Crested Auklet (Aethia cristatella Charadriiformes, Alcidae)

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Abstract

Vocal plasticity under changes in social environment is well-known for passerine birds that possess vocal learning, but it has remained almost unstudied for other species. In this paper we studied the effect of social environment (the presence of conspecifics, a pair-mate, and a vocal duel), breeding period, and individuality on the acoustic variables and occurrence of self-advertising calls (trumpet calls) in male crested auklets (Aethia cristatella). This species is a planktivorous seabird that breeds in dense colonies and displays complex social behavior on the colony surface. We collected data in 2008–2010 and 2015 on Talan Island (Sea of Okhotsk); in total we used 1047 calls from 25 individually marked and 62 unmarked males. We found that the majority of males most often emit self-advertising calls when a pair-mate is absent, but other conspecifics are present; most rarely they emit self-advertising calls when a pair-mate is present, but other conspecifics are absent. However, there are some individual differences in those preferences. We suggest that, in the presence of a pair-mate, auklets prefer to use duet displays to signal their social status and pair-mate “occupation.” We also found that the effect of the social environment and breeding period on all acoustic variables measured is weaker than the effect of individuality. However, some of the trumpet call variables (mainly the duration of some syllables inside the trumpet call) changed significantly under the influence of the social environment and breeding period. Thus, crested auklets can slightly change the acoustic variables of their calls depending on the social environment, but keep the overall signature of their calls stable to make vocal individual recognition possible during the entire breeding season.

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  1. Bakhturina, D.S., Comparative characteristics of duet displays in three auk species (Crested Auklet (Aethia cristatella), Parakeet Auklet (Cyclorrynchus psittacula), and Horned Puffin (Fratercula corniculata)), Master’s Thesis, Moscow: Moscow State University, 2014.

  2. Kolesnikova, Yu.A., The indicators of individuality, sex, and quality in calls of social seabird, Parakeet Auklet (Aethia psittacula), Master’s Thesis, Moscow: Moscow State University, 2011.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors are sincerely grateful to V.A. Zubakin, E.V. Zubakina, and D.S. Vodolazova for comprehensive assistance and support at many stages of the work, as well as for help in data collection. The authors also thank all staff of the ornithology laboratory of the Institute of Biological Problems of the North, Far East Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, for the opportunity to conduct field research on Talan Island and for their comprehensive assistance in preparing expeditions. Special thanks are expressed by the authors to A.V. Andreev, E.Yu. Golubova, and Yu.A. Sleptsov for their help in conducting field research and data collection.

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This work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation, project no. 14-14-00237.

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  1. Biology Department, Moscow State University , 119234, Moscow, Russia

    V. A. Komarova & A. V. Klenova

  2. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences, 119071, Moscow, Russia

    V. A. Komarova

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  1. V. A. Komarova
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  2. A. V. Klenova
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Correspondence to V. A. Komarova or A. V. Klenova.

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Komarova, V.A., Klenova, A.V. Effect of Social Environment on Acoustic Variables and Occurrence of Trumpet Calls of the Crested Auklet (Aethia cristatella Charadriiformes, Alcidae). Biol Bull Russ Acad Sci 46, 904–915 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1062359019080041

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