Frey Roland, Volodin Ilya A, Fritsch Guido, Volodina Elena V
Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW), Berlin, Germany.
Department of Vertebrate Zoology, Faculty of Biology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia.
PLoS One. 2016 Jan 5;11(1):e0146330. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0146330. eCollection 2016.
Biphonation, i.e. two independent fundamental frequencies in a call spectrum, is a prominent feature of vocal activity in dog-like canids. Dog-like canids can produce a low (f0) and a high (g0) fundamental frequency simultaneously. In contrast, fox-like canids are only capable of producing the low fundamental frequency (f0). Using a comparative anatomical approach for revealing macroscopic structures potentially responsible for canid biphonation, we investigated the vocal anatomy for 4 (1 male, 3 female) captive dholes (Cuon alpinus) and for 2 (1 male, 1 female) wild red fox (Vulpes vulpes). In addition, we analyzed the acoustic structure of vocalizations in the same dholes that served postmortem as specimens for the anatomical investigation. All study dholes produced both high-frequency and biphonic calls. The anatomical reconstructions revealed that the vocal morphologies of the dhole are very similar to those of the red fox. These results suggest that the high-frequency and biphonic calls in dog-like canids can be produced without specific anatomical adaptations of the sound-producing structures. We discuss possible production modes for the high-frequency and biphonic calls involving laryngeal and nasal structures.
双声，即在叫声频谱中出现两个独立的基频，是犬科动物发声活动的一个显著特征。犬科动物能够同时发出一个低频（f0）和一个高频（g0）基频。相比之下，狐科动物只能发出低频基频（f0）。为了揭示可能与犬科动物双声有关的宏观结构，我们采用比较解剖学方法，对4只（1只雄性，3只雌性）圈养豺（豺属）和2只（1只雄性，1只雌性）野生赤狐（赤狐属）的发声解剖结构进行了研究。此外，我们还分析了那些在死后作为解剖研究标本的豺的发声声学结构。所有参与研究的豺都能发出高频叫声和双声叫声。解剖重建显示，豺的发声形态与赤狐非常相似。这些结果表明，犬科动物的高频叫声和双声叫声可以在发声结构没有特定解剖适应性的情况下产生。我们讨论了涉及喉部和鼻腔结构的高频叫声和双声叫声的可能发声模式。
