Parent-offspring turn-taking dynamics influence parents’ song structure and elaboration in a singing primate
Parent-offspring interactions are essential to interpret animal social evolution and behavior, but their role in mediating acoustic communication in animals that interact vocally is still unclear. Increasing evidence shows that primate vocal communication is way more flexible than previously assumed...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2022-07-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2022.906322/full |
| _version_ | 1828290579914555392 |
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| author | Chiara De Gregorio Anna Zanoli Filippo Carugati Teresa Raimondi Daria Valente Valeria Torti Longondraza Miaretsoa Andry Rajaonson Marco Gamba Cristina Giacoma |
| author_facet | Chiara De Gregorio Anna Zanoli Filippo Carugati Teresa Raimondi Daria Valente Valeria Torti Longondraza Miaretsoa Andry Rajaonson Marco Gamba Cristina Giacoma |
| author_sort | Chiara De Gregorio |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Parent-offspring interactions are essential to interpret animal social evolution and behavior, but their role in mediating acoustic communication in animals that interact vocally is still unclear. Increasing evidence shows that primate vocal communication is way more flexible than previously assumed, and research on this topic can provide further information on how the social environment shaped vocal plasticity during the evolution of the Primate order. Indris communicate through elaborated vocal emissions, usually termed songs. Songs are interactive vocal displays in which all members of the family group alternate their emissions, taking turns during chorusing events. We aimed to understand whether specific rules regulate the turn-taking of different group members and investigate the flexibility of indris’ vocal behavior when co-singing with their offspring. We found that social factors can influence the turn-taking organization in a chorus, as offspring were more likely to drop out from the parents’ duet than join in, and we speculate that overlap might signal competition by members of the same-sex. The duet between the reproductive pair was the most common type of singing organization, followed by a duet between mothers and sons and the triadic interaction between mother, father, and son. Interestingly, parents’ solo singing seems to stimulate offspring to vocalize, and we also found that mothers and fathers simplify, at least in part, song elaboration when chorusing with offspring. Our results indicate that indris can perform short-time adjustments to the number of co-emitters and their identity: our approach is advantageous in highlighting the multilevel influences on primate vocal flexibility. Moreover, it provides evidence that some aspects of our vocal plasticity were already present in the lemur lineage. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-13T10:36:49Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-469bc74f7a7e402fb94ded487189d08b |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2296-701X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T10:36:49Z |
| publishDate | 2022-07-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution |
| spelling | doaj.art-469bc74f7a7e402fb94ded487189d08b2022-12-22T02:50:01ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution2296-701X2022-07-011010.3389/fevo.2022.906322906322Parent-offspring turn-taking dynamics influence parents’ song structure and elaboration in a singing primateChiara De Gregorio0Anna Zanoli1Filippo Carugati2Teresa Raimondi3Daria Valente4Valeria Torti5Longondraza Miaretsoa6Andry Rajaonson7Marco Gamba8Cristina Giacoma9Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Turin, Turin, ItalyDepartment of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Turin, Turin, ItalyDepartment of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Turin, Turin, ItalyDepartment of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Turin, Turin, ItalyDepartment of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Turin, Turin, ItalyDepartment of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Turin, Turin, ItalyDepartment of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Turin, Turin, ItalyGroupe d’Étude et de Recherche sur les Primates de Madagascar, Antananarivo, MadagascarDepartment of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Turin, Turin, ItalyDepartment of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Turin, Turin, ItalyParent-offspring interactions are essential to interpret animal social evolution and behavior, but their role in mediating acoustic communication in animals that interact vocally is still unclear. Increasing evidence shows that primate vocal communication is way more flexible than previously assumed, and research on this topic can provide further information on how the social environment shaped vocal plasticity during the evolution of the Primate order. Indris communicate through elaborated vocal emissions, usually termed songs. Songs are interactive vocal displays in which all members of the family group alternate their emissions, taking turns during chorusing events. We aimed to understand whether specific rules regulate the turn-taking of different group members and investigate the flexibility of indris’ vocal behavior when co-singing with their offspring. We found that social factors can influence the turn-taking organization in a chorus, as offspring were more likely to drop out from the parents’ duet than join in, and we speculate that overlap might signal competition by members of the same-sex. The duet between the reproductive pair was the most common type of singing organization, followed by a duet between mothers and sons and the triadic interaction between mother, father, and son. Interestingly, parents’ solo singing seems to stimulate offspring to vocalize, and we also found that mothers and fathers simplify, at least in part, song elaboration when chorusing with offspring. Our results indicate that indris can perform short-time adjustments to the number of co-emitters and their identity: our approach is advantageous in highlighting the multilevel influences on primate vocal flexibility. Moreover, it provides evidence that some aspects of our vocal plasticity were already present in the lemur lineage.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2022.906322/fullchoruslemurprimateflexibilityelaborationduet |
| spellingShingle | Chiara De Gregorio Anna Zanoli Filippo Carugati Teresa Raimondi Daria Valente Valeria Torti Longondraza Miaretsoa Andry Rajaonson Marco Gamba Cristina Giacoma Parent-offspring turn-taking dynamics influence parents’ song structure and elaboration in a singing primate Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution chorus lemur primate flexibility elaboration duet |
| title | Parent-offspring turn-taking dynamics influence parents’ song structure and elaboration in a singing primate |
| title_full | Parent-offspring turn-taking dynamics influence parents’ song structure and elaboration in a singing primate |
| title_fullStr | Parent-offspring turn-taking dynamics influence parents’ song structure and elaboration in a singing primate |
| title_full_unstemmed | Parent-offspring turn-taking dynamics influence parents’ song structure and elaboration in a singing primate |
| title_short | Parent-offspring turn-taking dynamics influence parents’ song structure and elaboration in a singing primate |
| title_sort | parent offspring turn taking dynamics influence parents song structure and elaboration in a singing primate |
| topic | chorus lemur primate flexibility elaboration duet |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2022.906322/full |
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