Can harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) discriminate familiar conspecific calls after long periods of separation?

The ability to discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar calls may play a key role in pinnipeds’ communication and survival, as in the case of mother-pup interactions. Vocal discrimination abilities have been suggested to be more developed in pinniped species with the highest selective pressure s...

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Autores principales:	Mila Varola, Laura Verga, Marlene Gunda Ursel Sroka, Stella Villanueva, Isabelle Charrier, Andrea Ravignani
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	PeerJ Inc. 2021
Materias:	Vocal recognition Long-term memory Pinnipeds Harbor seals Phoca vitulina Playback presentation Medicine R
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/83b6fe4d077f4565a642da6166c5d496
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id	oai:doaj.org-article:83b6fe4d077f4565a642da6166c5d496
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:83b6fe4d077f4565a642da6166c5d4962021-11-17T15:05:11ZCan harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) discriminate familiar conspecific calls after long periods of separation?10.7717/peerj.124312167-8359https://doaj.org/article/83b6fe4d077f4565a642da6166c5d4962021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://peerj.com/articles/12431.pdfhttps://peerj.com/articles/12431/https://doaj.org/toc/2167-8359The ability to discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar calls may play a key role in pinnipeds’ communication and survival, as in the case of mother-pup interactions. Vocal discrimination abilities have been suggested to be more developed in pinniped species with the highest selective pressure such as the otariids; yet, in some group-living phocids, such as harbor seals (Phoca vitulina), mothers are also able to recognize their pup’s voice. Conspecifics’ vocal recognition in pups has never been investigated; however, the repeated interaction occurring between pups within the breeding season suggests that long-term vocal discrimination may occur. Here we explored this hypothesis by presenting three rehabilitated seal pups with playbacks of vocalizations from unfamiliar or familiar pups. It is uncommon for seals to come into rehabilitation for a second time in their lifespan, and this study took advantage of these rare cases. A simple visual inspection of the data plots seemed to show more reactions, and of longer duration, in response to familiar as compared to unfamiliar playbacks in two out of three pups. However, statistical analyses revealed no significant difference between the experimental conditions. We also found no significant asymmetry in orientation (left vs. right) towards familiar and unfamiliar sounds. While statistics do not support the hypothesis of an established ability to discriminate familiar vocalizations from unfamiliar ones in harbor seal pups, further investigations with a larger sample size are needed to confirm or refute this hypothesis.Mila VarolaLaura VergaMarlene Gunda Ursel SrokaStella VillanuevaIsabelle CharrierAndrea RavignaniPeerJ Inc.articleVocal recognitionLong-term memoryPinnipedsHarbor sealsPhoca vitulinaPlayback presentationMedicineRENPeerJ, Vol 9, p e12431 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Vocal recognition Long-term memory Pinnipeds Harbor seals Phoca vitulina Playback presentation Medicine R
spellingShingle	Vocal recognition Long-term memory Pinnipeds Harbor seals Phoca vitulina Playback presentation Medicine R Mila Varola Laura Verga Marlene Gunda Ursel Sroka Stella Villanueva Isabelle Charrier Andrea Ravignani Can harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) discriminate familiar conspecific calls after long periods of separation?
description	The ability to discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar calls may play a key role in pinnipeds’ communication and survival, as in the case of mother-pup interactions. Vocal discrimination abilities have been suggested to be more developed in pinniped species with the highest selective pressure such as the otariids; yet, in some group-living phocids, such as harbor seals (Phoca vitulina), mothers are also able to recognize their pup’s voice. Conspecifics’ vocal recognition in pups has never been investigated; however, the repeated interaction occurring between pups within the breeding season suggests that long-term vocal discrimination may occur. Here we explored this hypothesis by presenting three rehabilitated seal pups with playbacks of vocalizations from unfamiliar or familiar pups. It is uncommon for seals to come into rehabilitation for a second time in their lifespan, and this study took advantage of these rare cases. A simple visual inspection of the data plots seemed to show more reactions, and of longer duration, in response to familiar as compared to unfamiliar playbacks in two out of three pups. However, statistical analyses revealed no significant difference between the experimental conditions. We also found no significant asymmetry in orientation (left vs. right) towards familiar and unfamiliar sounds. While statistics do not support the hypothesis of an established ability to discriminate familiar vocalizations from unfamiliar ones in harbor seal pups, further investigations with a larger sample size are needed to confirm or refute this hypothesis.
format	article
author	Mila Varola Laura Verga Marlene Gunda Ursel Sroka Stella Villanueva Isabelle Charrier Andrea Ravignani
author_facet	Mila Varola Laura Verga Marlene Gunda Ursel Sroka Stella Villanueva Isabelle Charrier Andrea Ravignani
author_sort	Mila Varola
title	Can harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) discriminate familiar conspecific calls after long periods of separation?
title_short	Can harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) discriminate familiar conspecific calls after long periods of separation?
title_full	Can harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) discriminate familiar conspecific calls after long periods of separation?
title_fullStr	Can harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) discriminate familiar conspecific calls after long periods of separation?
title_full_unstemmed	Can harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) discriminate familiar conspecific calls after long periods of separation?
title_sort	can harbor seals (phoca vitulina) discriminate familiar conspecific calls after long periods of separation?
publisher	PeerJ Inc.
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/83b6fe4d077f4565a642da6166c5d496
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Can harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) discriminate familiar conspecific calls after long periods of separation?

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