Tomasek Maëlan, Ravignani Andrea, Boucherie Palmyre H, Van Meyel Sophie, Dufour Valérie
Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon Lyon France.
UMR 7247, Physiologie de la reproduction et des comportements, INRAE, CNRS, IFCE Université de Tours Strasbourg France.
Ecol Evol. 2023 Feb 16;13(2):e9791. doi: 10.1002/ece3.9791. eCollection 2023 Feb.
The ability to control one's vocal production is a major advantage in acoustic communication. Yet, not all species have the same level of control over their vocal output. Several bird species can interrupt their song upon hearing an external stimulus, but there is no evidence how flexible this behavior is. Most research on corvids focuses on their cognitive abilities, but few studies explore their vocal aptitudes. Recent research shows that crows can be experimentally trained to vocalize in response to a brief visual stimulus. Our study investigated vocal control abilities with a more ecologically embedded approach in rooks. We show that two rooks could spontaneously coordinate their vocalizations to a long-lasting stimulus (the sound of their small bathing pool being filled with a water hose), one of them adjusting roughly (in the second range) its vocalizations as the stimuli began and stopped. This exploratory study adds to the literature showing that corvids, a group of species capable of cognitive prowess, are indeed able to display good vocal control abilities.
能够控制自己的发声是声学通讯中的一大优势。然而，并非所有物种对其发声输出的控制水平都相同。一些鸟类在听到外部刺激时能够中断它们的歌声，但没有证据表明这种行为有多灵活。大多数关于鸦科动物的研究都集中在它们的认知能力上，但很少有研究探索它们的发声能力。最近的研究表明，乌鸦可以通过实验训练对短暂的视觉刺激做出发声反应。我们的研究采用了一种更具生态嵌入性的方法，对白嘴鸦的发声控制能力进行了调查。我们发现，两只白嘴鸦能够自发地将它们的发声与一个持续时间较长的刺激（用软管向它们的小浴池注水的声音）协调起来，其中一只在刺激开始和停止时大致（在秒级范围内）调整其发声。这项探索性研究进一步证明，鸦科动物作为一类具有认知能力的物种，确实能够展现出良好的发声控制能力。
