Rooks (Corvus frugilegus) can show spontaneous vocal flexibility when exposed to dynamically changing rhythmic sounds

Area of Science:

• Animal Behavior
• Bioacoustics
• Evolutionary Biology

Background:

• Musicality in humans involves auditory-rhythm synchronization, known as entrainment.
• While non-human primates have limited entrainment, birds exhibit advanced skills, suggesting convergent evolution.
• Investigating entrainment in social corvids like rooks can illuminate shared evolutionary origins of musicality.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate spontaneous vocal entrainment in rooks (Corvus frugilegus).
• To examine how tempo and metrical structure of auditory stimuli affect rooks' vocal timing.
• To explore potential convergently evolved rhythmic processing in birds.

Main Methods:

• Rooks were exposed to non-biologically relevant sound sequences with varying tempo and meter.
• Vocalizations of individual rooks were recorded and analyzed for temporal adjustments.
• Analysis focused on vocalisations produced in response to different auditory stimuli.

Main Results:

• Eight of eleven tested rooks vocalized during auditory stimulation.
• Three birds sang sufficiently for detailed analysis of responses to tempo and meter.
• Two individuals showed adjustments: one altered vocalisations duration with tempo, another reduced intervals in response to unary meter and slow tempo.

Conclusions:

• Rooks exhibit vocal flexibility in response to rhythmic auditory stimuli.
• Some rooks may attempt vocal entrainment, but precise synchronization was not observed.
• Rooks and other songbirds are valuable models for studying rhythmic perception and the evolution of musicality.