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Acoustic Structure and Individual Variation of Grey Seal (Halichoerus Grypus) Pup Calls

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

Abigail K. Caudron ,
Andrei A. Kondakov  and
Serguei V. Siryanov
Abigail K. Caudron
Affiliation:
Service d'Ethologie et de Psychologie animale, Institut de Zoologie, Université de Liège, Quai Van Beneden 22, B-4020 Liège, Belgium. E-mail: a.caudron@student.ulg.ac.be.
Andrei A. Kondakov
Affiliation:
Murmansk Marine Biology Institute, Kola Scientific Centre, Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladimirskaya 17, Murmansk 183010, Russia
Serguei V. Siryanov
Affiliation:
Murmansk Marine Biology Institute, Kola Scientific Centre, Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladimirskaya 17, Murmansk 183010, Russia
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Extract

Throughout lactation, pups of pinnipeds regularly vocalize, including during interactions with their mother. In all studied species of otariids and in some phocids, these calls exhibit sufficient acoustic variation for individual recognition. As female grey seals Halichoerus grypus (Pinnipedia: Phocidae) often pup in dense colonies, and regularly leave their offspring alone to go to sea, the selective pressure for mutual vocal recognition between mothers and pups could be high. To investigate call variation in pups of this species, 170 calls of ten individual pups were analysed. Out of seven acoustic features studied, location of maximum signal strength, the number of harmonics and the frequency and strength of the fundamental show the highest individuality. However, the apparent infrequent use of pup calls during mother-pup reunions suggests that vocal signals may not play the major role in pup discrimination by female grey seals, as observed in other phocids which females do not vocalize to their pup.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 78 , Issue 2 , May 1998 , pp. 651 - 658
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1998

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