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Vocal cues indicate level of arousal in infant African elephant roars

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-08, 13:24 authored by Angela S Stoeger, Benjamin D Charlton, Helmut Kratochvil, W Tecumseh Fitch
Arousal-based physiological changes influence acoustic features of vocalizations in mammals. In particular, nonlinear phenomena are thought to convey information about the caller’s arousal state. This hypothesis was tested in the infant African elephant (Loxodonta africana) roar, a call type produced in situations of arousal and distress. Ninety-two percent of roars exhibited nonlinear phenomena, with chaos being the most common type. Acoustic irregularities were strongly associated with elevated fundamental frequency values. Roars produced in situations of highest urgency, based on the occurrence of behavioral indicators of arousal, were characterized by the lowest harmonics-to-noise ratio; this indicates low tonality. In addition, roars produced in these situations lasted longer than those produced in contexts of lower presumed urgency. Testing the infant roars for individual distinctiveness revealed only a moderate classification result. Combined, these findings indicate that infant African elephant roars primarily function to signal the caller’s arousal state. The effective communication of this type of information may allow mothers to respond differentially based on their infant’s degree of need and may be crucial for the survival of infant African elephants in their natural environment

History

Publication status

  • Published

Journal

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

ISSN

0001-4966

Publisher

Acoustical Society of America

Issue

3

Volume

130

Page range

1700-1710

Department affiliated with

  • Psychology Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2012-11-14

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