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dc.contributor.authorSayigh, Laela S.
dc.contributor.authorEl Haddad, Nicole
dc.contributor.authorTyack, Peter L.
dc.contributor.authorJanik, Vincent M.
dc.contributor.authorWells, Randall S.
dc.contributor.authorJensen, Frants H.
dc.date.accessioned2023-06-29T10:30:12Z
dc.date.available2023-06-29T10:30:12Z
dc.date.issued2023-07-04
dc.identifier289415422
dc.identifierae714a89-4164-4844-a98f-40c91747d97c
dc.identifier85163017310
dc.identifier.citationSayigh , L S , El Haddad , N , Tyack , P L , Janik , V M , Wells , R S & Jensen , F H 2023 , ' Bottlenose dolphin mothers modify signature whistles in the presence of their own calves ' , Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , vol. 120 , no. 27 , e2300262120 . https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2300262120en
dc.identifier.issn1091-6490
dc.identifier.otherRIS: urn:68097CA4A1CFB689B4A09A5013862C1C
dc.identifier.otherORCID: /0000-0002-8409-4790/work/137914865
dc.identifier.otherORCID: /0000-0001-7894-0121/work/137915557
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/27844
dc.descriptionFunding: PLT received support from ONR grants N00014-18-1-2062 and N00014-20-1-2709. Financial support for the whistle database project has come from the Protect Wild Dolphins fund at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, Vulcan Machine Learning Center for Impact, Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Adelaide M. & Charles B. Link Foundation, and Dolphin Quest, Inc.en
dc.description.abstractHuman caregivers interacting with children typically modify their speech in ways that promote attention, bonding, and language acquisition. Although this “motherese,” or child-directed communication (CDC), occurs in a variety of human cultures, evidence among nonhuman species is very rare. We looked for its occurrence in a nonhuman mammalian species with long-term mother–offspring bonds that is capable of vocal production learning, the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus). Dolphin signature whistles provide a unique opportunity to test for CDC in nonhuman animals, because we are able to quantify changes in the same vocalizations produced in the presence or absence of calves. We analyzed recordings made during brief catch-and-release events of wild bottlenose dolphins in waters near Sarasota Bay, Florida, United States, and found that females produced signature whistles with significantly higher maximum frequencies and wider frequency ranges when they were recorded with their own dependent calves vs. not with them. These differences align with the higher fundamental frequencies and wider pitch ranges seen in human CDC. Our results provide evidence in a nonhuman mammal for changes in the same vocalizations when produced in the presence vs. absence of offspring, and thus strongly support convergent evolution of motherese, or CDC, in bottlenose dolphins. CDC may function to enhance attention, bonding, and vocal learning in dolphin calves, as it does in human children. Our data add to the growing body of evidence that dolphins provide a powerful animal model for studying the evolution of vocal learning and language.
dc.format.extent6
dc.format.extent994936
dc.language.isoeng
dc.relation.ispartofProceedings of the National Academy of Sciencesen
dc.subjectMothereseen
dc.subjectSignature whistleen
dc.subjectBottlenose dolphinen
dc.subjectVocal learningen
dc.subjectAnimal communicationen
dc.subjectQL Zoologyen
dc.subjectDASen
dc.subjectMCCen
dc.subject.lccQLen
dc.titleBottlenose dolphin mothers modify signature whistles in the presence of their own calvesen
dc.typeJournal articleen
dc.contributor.institutionUniversity of St Andrews. School of Biologyen
dc.contributor.institutionUniversity of St Andrews. Institute of Behavioural and Neural Sciencesen
dc.contributor.institutionUniversity of St Andrews. Sea Mammal Research Uniten
dc.contributor.institutionUniversity of St Andrews. Scottish Oceans Instituteen
dc.contributor.institutionUniversity of St Andrews. Centre for Social Learning & Cognitive Evolutionen
dc.contributor.institutionUniversity of St Andrews. Bioacoustics groupen
dc.contributor.institutionUniversity of St Andrews. Marine Alliance for Science & Technology Scotlanden
dc.identifier.doi10.1073/pnas.2300262120
dc.description.statusPeer revieweden


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