ArticlePloS one2017
Meerkat close calling patterns are linked to sex, social category, season and wind, but not fecal glucocorticoid metabolite concentrations.
Article in PloS one, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- Cooperation: Behavioral manifestations and neural mechanisms.Current opinion in neurobiology · 2026Review
- Audience effects in a group-living bird: How contact call rate is affected by vegetation and group size and composition.Ecology and evolution · 2023Article
- Neuroanatomical and Immunohistological Study of the Main and Accessory Olfactory Bulbs of the Meerkat (Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2021Article
- Signalling adjustments to direct and indirect environmental effects on signal perception in meerkats.PloS one · 2020Article
- Cost of dispersal in a social mammal: body mass loss and increased stress.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2019Article
- Adult meerkats modify close call rate in the presence of pups.Current zoology · 2017Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
It is well established that animal vocalizations can encode information regarding a sender's identity, sex, age, body size, social rank and group membership. However, the association between physiological parameters, particularly stress hormone levels, and vocal behavior is still not well understood. The cooperatively breeding African meerkats (Suricata suricatta) live in family groups with despotic social hierarchies. During foraging, individuals emit close calls that help maintain group cohesion. These contact calls are acoustically distinctive and variable in rate across individuals, yet, information on which factors influence close calling behavior is missing. The aim of this study was to identify proximate factors that influence variation in call rate and acoustic structure of meerkat close calls. Specifically, we investigated whether close calling behavior is associated with sex, age and rank, or stress hormone output (i.e., measured as fecal glucocorticoid metabolite (fGCM) concentrations) as individual traits of the caller, as well as with environmental conditions (weather) and reproductive seasonality. To disentangle the effects of these factors on vocal behavior, we analyzed sound recordings and assessed fGCM concentrations in 64 wild but habituated meerkats from 9 groups during the reproductive and non-reproductive seasons. Dominant females and one-year old males called at significantly higher rates compared to other social categories during the reproductive season. Additionally, dominant females produced close calls with the lowest mean fundamental frequencies (F0) and the longest mean pulse durations. Windy conditions were associated with significantly higher call rates during the non-reproductive season. Fecal GCM concentrations were unrelated to close calling behavior. Our findings suggest that meerkat close calling behavior conveys information regarding the sex and social category of the caller, but shows no association with fGCM concentrations. The change in call rate in response to variation in the social and ecological environments individuals experience indicates some degree of flexibility in vocal production.
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