We are pleased to announce the publication of our recent study on the importance of maternal signature whistle use in aiding mother-calf reunions in bottlenose dolphins, published in the journal Behavioural Processes. Authors; Stephanie L. King, Emily Guarino, Loriel Keaton, Linda Erb, and Kelly Jaakkola. Abstract: Individual vocal signatures play an important role in parent-offspring recognition in many animals. One species that uses signature calls to accurately facilitate individual recognition is the bottlenose dolphin. Female dolphins and their calves will use their highly individualised signature whistles to identify and maintain contact with one another. Previous studies have shown high signature whistle rates of both mothers and calves during forced separations. In more natural settings, it appears that the calf vocalises more frequently to initiate reunions with its mother. However, little is known about the mechanisms a female dolphin may employ when there is strong motivation for her to reunite with her calf. In this study, we conducted a series of experimental trials in which we asked a female dolphin to retrieve either her wandering calf or a series of inanimate objects (control). Our results show that she used her vocal signature to actively recruit her calf, and produced no such signal when asked to retrieve the objects. This is the first study to clearly manipulate a dolphin's motivation to retrieve her calf with experimental controls. The results highlight that signature whistles are not only used in broadcasting individual identity, but that maternal signature whistle use is important in facilitating mother-calf reunions. You can access the article at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0376635716300535
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I am pleased to announce that I have been award a Society in Science – The Branco Weiss Fellowship. This is a unique postdoc program for scientists with a proven track record who are willing to engage in a dialogue on relevant social, cultural, political or economic issues across the frontiers of their particular discipline. It awards young researchers around the world with a generous personal research grant, giving them the freedom to work on whatever topic they choose anywhere in the world, for up to five years.
You can see my full profile here: http://www.society-in-science.org/stephanie-king.html I am pleased to announce the publication of “You talkin’ to me? Interactive playback is a powerful yet underused tool in animal communication research” in Biology Letters
Author: Stephanie L King Abstract: Over the years, playback experiments have helped further our understanding of the wonderful world of animal communication. They have provided fundamental insights into animal behaviour and the function of communicative signals in numerous taxa. As important as these experiments are, however, there is strong evidence to suggest that the information conveyed in a signal may only have value when presented interactively. By their very nature, signalling exchanges are interactive and therefore, an interactive playback design is a powerful tool for examining the function of such exchanges. While researchers working on frog and songbird vocal interactions have long championed interactive playback, it remains surprisingly underused across other taxa. The interactive playback approach is not limited to studies of acoustic signalling, but can be applied to other sensory modalities, including visual, chemical and electrical communication. Here, I discuss interactive playback as a potent yet underused technique in the field of animal behaviour. I present a concise review of studies that have used interactive playback thus far, describe how it can be applied, and discuss its limitations and challenges. My hope is that this review will result in more scientists applying this innovative technique to their own study subjects, as a means of furthering our understanding of the function of signalling interactions in animal communication systems. You can access the article at: http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/11/7/20150403 New Publication: An interim framework for assessing the population consequences of disturbance6/30/2015 I am pleased to announce the publication of “An interim framework for assessing the population consequences of disturbance” in Methods in Ecology and Evolution
Authors; Stephanie L. King, Robert S. Schick, Carl Donovan, Cormac G. Booth, Mark Burgman, Len Thomas and John Harwood Abstract:
You can access the article at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/2041-210X.12411/full "In today’s Academic Minute, Dr. Stephanie King of the University of St Andrews explains recent findings that point to the use of names by dolphins." http://wamc.org/post/dr-stephanie-king-university-st-andrews-dolphins-and-names#stream/0 Coverage of our new PNAS paper: http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/07/22/scientists-address-wild-dolphins-by-their-natural-names/
I am pleased to announce the publication of “Bottlenose dolphins can use learned vocal labels to address each other” in PNAS Authors: Stephanie L King and Vincent M Janik Abstract: In animal communication research, vocal labeling refers to incidents in which an animal consistently uses a specific acoustic signal when presented with a specific object or class of objects. Labeling with learned signals is a foundation of human language but is notably rare in nonhuman communication systems. In natural animal systems, labeling often occurs with signals that are not influenced by learning, such as in alarm and food calling. There is a suggestion, however, that some species use learned signals to label conspecific individuals in their own communication system when mimicking individually distinctive calls. Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) are a promising animal for exploration in this area because they are capable of vocal production learning and can learn to use arbitrary signals to report the presence or absence of objects. Bottlenose dolphins develop their own unique identity signal, the signature whistle. This whistle encodes individual identity independently of voice features. The copying of signature whistles may therefore allow animals to label or address one another. Here, we show that wild bottlenose dolphins respond to hearing a copy of their own signature whistle by calling back. Animals did not respond to whistles that were not their own signature. This study provides compelling evidence that a dolphin’s learned identity signal is used as a label when addressing conspecifics. Bottlenose dolphins therefore appear to be unique as nonhuman mammals to use learned signals as individually specific labels for different social companions in their own natural communication system. You can access the article at: http://www.pnas.org/content/110/32/13216.full Coverage of our new Proc Roy Soc B paper: http://news.sciencemag.org/plants-animals/2013/02/dolphins-can-call-each-other-not-name-whistle
New Publication: Vocal copying of individually distinctive signature whistles in bottlenose dolphins2/12/2013 I'm pleased to announce our new open access paper entitled "Vocal copying of individually distinctive signature whistles in bottlenose dolphins” in Proc Roy Soc B
Authors: Stephanie L King, Laela S Sayigh, Randall S Wells, Wendi Fellner and Vincent M Janik Abstract: Vocal learning is relatively common in birds but less so in mammals. Sexual selection and individual or group recognition have been identified as major forces in its evolution. While important in the development of vocal displays, vocal learning also allows signal copying in social interactions. Such copying can function in addressing or labelling selected conspecifics. Most examples of addressing in non-humans come from bird song, where matching occurs in an aggressive context. However, in other animals, addressing with learned signals is very much an affiliative signal. We studied the function of vocal copying in a mammal that shows vocal learning as well as complex cognitive and social behaviour, the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus). Copying occurred almost exclusively between close associates such as mother–calf pairs and male alliances during separation and was not followed by aggression. All copies were clearly recognizable as such because copiers consistently modified some acoustic parameters of a signal when copying it. We found no evidence for the use of copying in aggression or deception. This use of vocal copying is similar to its use in human language, where the maintenance of social bonds appears to be more important than the immediate defence of resources. You can access the paper here: http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/280/1757/20130053 |
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