TY - JOUR T1 - Voice breaking and its relation to body mass and testosterone level in the Siberian Crane (Leucogeranus leucogeranus) Y1 - 2020 A1 - Klenova, Anna V. A1 - Goncharova, Maria V. A1 - Kashentseva, Tatiana A. A1 - Naidenko, Sergey V. KW - Biphonation KW - Body weight growth KW - Non-passerine birds KW - Parent–offspring interaction KW - Sex hormone level in adolescents KW - vocal development AB -

Vocal development of cranes (Gruidae) has attracted scientific interest due to its special stage, voice breaking. During voice breaking, chicks of different crane species produce calls with two fundamental frequencies that correspond to those in adult low-frequency and juvenile high-frequency vocalizations. However, triggers that affect voice breaking in cranes are mainly unknown. Here we studied the voice breaking in the Siberian Crane (Leucogeranus leucogeranus) and test its relation to the body mass and testosterone level. We analyzed 5846 calls, 39 body mass measurements and 60 blood samples from 11 Siberian Crane chicks in 8 ages from 2.5 to 18 months of life together with 90 body mass measurements and 61 blood samples from 24 Siberian Crane adults. The individual duration of voice breaking and dates of its onset, culmination and completion depended neither on the body mass nor on the testosterone level at various ages. But we found correlation between the testosterone level and mean deltas of percentages of the high and low frequency components in Siberian Crane calls between the closest recording sessions. We also observed some coincidence in time between the mean dates of voice breaking onset and the termination of body mass gain (at 7.5 months of age), and between the mean dates of voice breaking completion and the start of a new breeding season. Similar relations have been shown previously for some other crane species. We also showed for the first time that the mean dates of voice breaking culmination correlated with the significant increase of the testosterone level (at 10.5 months of age). So, we suggest that voice breaking in cranes may be triggered by the end of chicks’ body growth, is stimulated by the increase of testosterone level and ends soon after adult cranes stop taking care of their chicks.

UR - http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10336-020-01773-w ER - TY - JOUR T1 - High frequency audible calls in northern birch mice Sicista betulina in response to handling: effects of individuality, sex and body mass on the acoustics Y1 - 2019 A1 - Volodin, Ilya A. A1 - Klenova, Anna V. A1 - Ilchenko, Olga G. A1 - Volodina, Elena V. AB -

Objectives
This is the first study of the sonic and ultrasonic vocalization in a Dipodidae rodent. For the small-sized quadrupedal northern birch mouse Sicista betulina, phylogenetically related to the bipedal jerboas (Dipodidae), we report null results for ultrasonic vocalization and investigate the acoustic cues to individual identity, sex and body size in the discomfort-related high-frequency tonal sonic calls.

Results
We used a parallel audio recording in the sonic and ultrasonic ranges during weighting adult northern birch mice before the scheduled hibernation in captivity. The sonic (audible) high-frequency tonal calls (ranging from 6.21 to 9.86 kHz) were presented in all individuals (7 males and 4 females). The ultrasonic calls lacked in the recordings. Two-way nested ANOVA revealed the effects of caller individual identity on all 10 measured acoustic variables and the effects of sex on four out of 10 measured acoustic variables. Discriminant function analyses with 10 acoustic variables included in the analysis showed 85.5% correct assignment of calls to individual and 79.7% correct assignment of calls to sex; both values significantly exceeded the random values (23.1% and 54.3%, respectively) calculated with randomization procedure. Body mass did not differ between sexes and did not correlate significantly with the acoustic variables.

UR - https://bmcresnotes.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13104-019-4719-9 ER -