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The Journal of Experimental Biology 205, 603-612 (2002)
© 2002 The Company of Biologists Limited

How does a fur seal mother recognize the voice of her pup? An experimental study of Arctocephalus tropicalis

Isabelle Charrier1,2,*, Nicolas Mathevon1,3 and Pierre Jouventin2

1 Laboratoire de Biologie Animale, Université Jean Monnet, 42023 Saint-Etienne cedex 2, France,
2 C.E.F.E. C.N.R.S., UPR 9056, Montpellier, France and
3 NAMC C.N.R.S., UMR 8620, Université Paris XI, Orsay, France

*e-mail: isabelle.charrier{at}univ-st-etienne.fr

Accepted 19 December 2001

In the subantarctic fur seal Arctocephalus tropicalis, mothers leave their pups during the rearing period to make long and frequent feeding trips to sea. When a female returns from the ocean, she has to find her pup among several hundred others. Taking into account both spectral and temporal domains, we investigated the individual vocal signature occurring in the ‘female attraction call’ used by pups to attract their mother. We calculated the intra- and inter-individual variability for each measured acoustic cue to isolate those likely to contain information about individual identity. We then tested these cues in playback experiments. Our results show that a female pays particular attention to the lower part of the signal spectrum, the fundamental frequency accompanied by its first two harmonics being sufficient to elicit reliable recognition. The spectral energy distribution is also important for the recognition process. Of the temporal features, frequency modulation appears to be a key component for individual recognition, whereas amplitude modulation is not implicated in the identification of the pup’s voice by its mother. We discuss these results with respect to the constraints imposed on fur seals by a colonial way of life.

Key words: acoustic communication, vocal signature, individual recognition, behaviour, fur seal, playback experiment, Arctocephalus tropicalis.


Related articles in JEB:

I Don’t Know How You Get to Find Your Pups So Quickly (p. 603)

JEB 2002 205: i. [Full Text]  



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© The Company of Biologists Ltd 2002