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Sexual dimorphism in African elephant social rumbles

This study used the source and filter theory approach to analyse sex differences in the acoustic features of African elephant (Loxodonta africana) low-frequency rumbles produced in social contexts (‘social rumbles’). Permuted discriminant function analysis revealed that rumbles contain sufficient ac...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Baotic, Anton, Stoeger, Angela S.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5425207/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28489908
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0177411
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author Baotic, Anton
Stoeger, Angela S.
author_facet Baotic, Anton
Stoeger, Angela S.
author_sort Baotic, Anton
collection PubMed
description This study used the source and filter theory approach to analyse sex differences in the acoustic features of African elephant (Loxodonta africana) low-frequency rumbles produced in social contexts (‘social rumbles’). Permuted discriminant function analysis revealed that rumbles contain sufficient acoustic information to predict the sex of a vocalizing individual. Features primarily related to the vocalizer’s size, i.e. fundamental frequency variables and vocal tract resonant frequencies, differed significantly between the sexes. Yet, controlling for age and size effects, our results indicate that the pronounced sexual size dimorphism in African elephants is partly, but not exclusively, responsible for sexual differences in social rumbles. This provides a scientific foundation for future work investigating the perceptual and functional relevance of specific acoustic characteristics in African elephant vocal sexual communication.
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spelling pubmed-54252072017-05-15 Sexual dimorphism in African elephant social rumbles Baotic, Anton Stoeger, Angela S. PLoS One Research Article This study used the source and filter theory approach to analyse sex differences in the acoustic features of African elephant (Loxodonta africana) low-frequency rumbles produced in social contexts (‘social rumbles’). Permuted discriminant function analysis revealed that rumbles contain sufficient acoustic information to predict the sex of a vocalizing individual. Features primarily related to the vocalizer’s size, i.e. fundamental frequency variables and vocal tract resonant frequencies, differed significantly between the sexes. Yet, controlling for age and size effects, our results indicate that the pronounced sexual size dimorphism in African elephants is partly, but not exclusively, responsible for sexual differences in social rumbles. This provides a scientific foundation for future work investigating the perceptual and functional relevance of specific acoustic characteristics in African elephant vocal sexual communication. Public Library of Science 2017-05-10 /pmc/articles/PMC5425207/ /pubmed/28489908 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0177411 Text en © 2017 Baotic, Stoeger http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Baotic, Anton
Stoeger, Angela S.
Sexual dimorphism in African elephant social rumbles
title Sexual dimorphism in African elephant social rumbles
title_full Sexual dimorphism in African elephant social rumbles
title_fullStr Sexual dimorphism in African elephant social rumbles
title_full_unstemmed Sexual dimorphism in African elephant social rumbles
title_short Sexual dimorphism in African elephant social rumbles
title_sort sexual dimorphism in african elephant social rumbles
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5425207/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28489908
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0177411
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