Sound transmission in a bamboo forest and its implications for information transfer in giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) bleats

Scientific Reports
Benjamin D CharltonRonald R Swaisgood

Abstract

Although mammal vocalisations signal attributes about the caller that are important in a range of contexts, relatively few studies have investigated the transmission of specific types of information encoded in mammal calls. In this study we broadcast and re-recorded giant panda bleats in a bamboo plantation, to assess the stability of individuality and sex differences in these calls over distance, and determine how the acoustic structure of giant panda bleats degrades in this species' typical environment. Our results indicate that vocal recognition of the caller's identity and sex is not likely to be possible when the distance between the vocaliser and receiver exceeds 20 m and 10 m, respectively. Further analysis revealed that the F0 contour of bleats was subject to high structural degradation as it propagated through the bamboo canopy, making the measurement of mean F0 and F0 modulation characteristics highly unreliable at distances exceeding 10 m. The most stable acoustic features of bleats in the bamboo forest environment (lowest % variation) were the upper formants and overall formant spacing. The analysis of amplitude attenuation revealed that the fifth and sixth formant are more prone to decay than the other frequency co...Continue Reading

References

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Jun 19, 2009·Biology Letters·Benjamin D CharltonRonald R Swaisgood
Nov 10, 2009·The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America·Benjamin D CharltonRebecca J Snyder
Sep 3, 2010·Biology Letters·Benjamin D CharltonRonald R Swaisgood
Mar 2, 2011·PloS One·Anna M TaylorKaren McComb
Oct 3, 2015·The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America·Benjamin D CharltonRonald R Swaisgood
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Citations

Jun 27, 2019·Nature Communications·Benjamin D CharltonRonald R Swaisgood
Apr 4, 2021·Animals : an Open Access Journal From MDPI·He LiuGuangzhan Fang

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Software Mentioned

Praat
SPSS

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