Sibiryakova Olga V, Volodin Ilya A, Frey Roland, Zuther Steffen, Kisebaev Talgat B, Salemgareev Albert R, Volodina Elena V
Department of Vertebrate Zoology, Faculty of Biology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Vorobievy Gory, 12/1, 119991, Moscow, Russia.
Scientific Research Department, Moscow Zoo, B. Gruzinskaya str. 1, 123242, Moscow, Russia.
Naturwissenschaften. 2017 Apr;104(3-4):11. doi: 10.1007/s00114-017-1433-0. Epub 2017 Feb 27.
Saiga antelopes Saiga tatarica tatarica give birth in large aggregations, and offspring follow the herd soon after birth. Herding is advantageous as anti-predator strategy; however, communication between mothers and neonates is strongly complicated in large aggregations. Individual series of nasal and oral contact calls of mother and neonate saiga antelopes were selected from recordings made with automated recording systems placed near the hiding neonates on the saiga breeding grounds in Northern Kazakhstan during synchronized parturitions of 30,000 calving females. We used for comparison of the acoustic structure of nasal and oral contact calls 168 nasal calls of 18 mothers, 192 oral calls of 21 mothers, 78 nasal calls of 16 neonates, and 197 oral calls of 22 neonates. In the oral calls of either mothers or neonates, formant frequencies were higher and the duration was longer than in the nasal calls, whereas fundamental frequencies did not differ between oral and nasal calls. Discriminant function analysis (DFA) based on six acoustic variables, accurately classified individual identity for 99.4% of oral calls of 18 mothers, for 89.3% of nasal calls of 18 mothers, and for 94.4% of oral calls of 18 neonates. The average value of correct classification to individual was higher in mother oral than in mother nasal calls and in mother oral calls than in neonate oral calls; no significant difference was observed between mother nasal and neonate oral calls. Variables mainly responsible for vocal identity were the fundamental frequency and the second and third formants in either mothers or neonates, and in either nasal or oral calls. The high vocal identity of mothers and neonates suggests a powerful potential for the mutual mother-offspring recognition in dense aggregations of saiga antelopes as an important component of their survival strategy.
高鼻羚羊指名亚种在大群体中分娩，幼崽出生后不久便会跟随群体。群体活动作为一种反捕食策略具有优势；然而，在大群体中，母亲与新生儿之间的交流变得极为复杂。在哈萨克斯坦北部高鼻羚羊繁殖地，当30000只母羊同步分娩时，利用自动录音系统在隐藏的新生儿附近进行录音，从中选取了母羊和新生高鼻羚羊个体的一系列鼻腔和口腔接触叫声。我们用于比较鼻腔和口腔接触叫声声学结构的样本包括：18只母羊的168次鼻腔叫声、21只母羊的192次口腔叫声、16只新生儿的78次鼻腔叫声以及22只新生儿的197次口腔叫声。在母羊或新生儿的口腔叫声中，共振峰频率更高，持续时间比鼻腔叫声更长，而口腔叫声和鼻腔叫声的基频并无差异。基于六个声学变量的判别函数分析（DFA），准确识别出了18只母羊99.4%的口腔叫声、18只母羊89.3%的鼻腔叫声以及18只新生儿94.4%的口腔叫声的个体身份。母亲口腔叫声的个体正确分类平均值高于母亲鼻腔叫声，且母亲口腔叫声的个体正确分类平均值高于新生儿口腔叫声；母亲鼻腔叫声和新生儿口腔叫声之间未观察到显著差异。在母亲或新生儿中，以及在鼻腔或口腔叫声中，主要负责声音识别的变量是基频以及第二和第三共振峰。母亲和新生儿的高声音辨识度表明，在高鼻羚羊密集群体中，母婴相互识别具有强大潜力，这是它们生存策略的重要组成部分。
