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Potential for individual recognition in acoustic signals: a comparative study of two gulls with different nesting
Nicolas Mathevon1, Isabelle Charrier, Pierre Jouventin
1CNRS UMR 8620, NAMC, 91400 Orsay, France. mathevon@univ-st-etienne.fr
Abstract:
We test relationships between structure of acoustic signal used for individual recognition and nesting ecology among two gulls: the black-headed gull (Larus ridibundus), in which chicks remain in the nest, and the slender-billed gull (L. genei), in which chicks leave the nest after hatching to form crèches. A striking difference between both species is the presence of two fundamental frequencies in the slender-billed gull's call and only one in the black-headed gull's call. Our study shows that the potential for individuality coding is more important in the species where the offspring experiment the greatest constraints--due to their nesting pattern--to identify their parents.
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