Singing in the rain forest: how a tropical bird song transfers information.

@article{citeulike:2775991, abstract = {How information transmission processes between individuals are shaped by natural selection is a key question for the understanding of the evolution of acoustic communication systems. Environmental acoustics predict that signal structure will differ depending on general features of the habitat. Social features, like individual spacing and mating behavior, may also be important for the design of communication. Here we present the first experimental study investigating how a tropical rainforest bird, the white-browed warbler Basileuterus leucoblepharus, extracts various information from a received song: species-specific identity, individual identity and location of the sender. Species-specific information is encoded in a resistant acoustic feature and is thus a public signal helping males to reach a wide audience. Conversely, individual identity is supported by song features susceptible to propagation: this private signal is reserved for neighbors. Finally, the receivers can locate the singers by using propagation-induced song modifications. Thus, this communication system is well matched to the acoustic constraints of the rain forest and to the ecological requirements of the species. Our results emphasize that, in a constraining acoustic environment, the efficiency of a sound communication system results from a coding/decoding process particularly well tuned to the acoustic properties of this environment.}, address = {Equipe Communications Acoustiques Neurobiologie de l'Apprentissage, de la M\'{e}moire et de la Communication (NAMC) Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) UMR8620, Universit\'{e} Paris XI, Orsay, France. mathevon@univ-st-etienne.fr}, author = {Mathevon, Nicolas and Aubin, Thierry and Vielliard, Jacques and da Silva, Maria-Luisa and Sebe, Fr\'{e}d\'{e}ric and Boscolo, Danilo }, citeulike-article-id = {2775991}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0001580}, issn = {1932-6203}, journal = {PLoS ONE}, keywords = {song}, number = {2}, posted-at = {2008-05-09 15:26:18}, priority = {2}, title = {Singing in the rain forest: how a tropical bird song transfers information.}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0001580}, volume = {3}, year = {2008} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:2775991 L3 - citeulike-article-id:2775991 TI - Singing in the rain forest: how a tropical bird song transfers information. JF - PLoS ONE VL - 3 IS - 2 AD - Equipe Communications Acoustiques Neurobiologie de l'Apprentissage, de la Mémoire et de la Communication (NAMC) Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) UMR8620, Université Paris XI, Orsay, France. mathevon@univ-st-etienne.fr SN - 1932-6203 N2 - How information transmission processes between individuals are shaped by natural selection is a key question for the understanding of the evolution of acoustic communication systems. Environmental acoustics predict that signal structure will differ depending on general features of the habitat. Social features, like individual spacing and mating behavior, may also be important for the design of communication. Here we present the first experimental study investigating how a tropical rainforest bird, the white-browed warbler Basileuterus leucoblepharus, extracts various information from a received song: species-specific identity, individual identity and location of the sender. Species-specific information is encoded in a resistant acoustic feature and is thus a public signal helping males to reach a wide audience. Conversely, individual identity is supported by song features susceptible to propagation: this private signal is reserved for neighbors. Finally, the receivers can locate the singers by using propagation-induced song modifications. Thus, this communication system is well matched to the acoustic constraints of the rain forest and to the ecological requirements of the species. Our results emphasize that, in a constraining acoustic environment, the efficiency of a sound communication system results from a coding/decoding process particularly well tuned to the acoustic properties of this environment. KW - song AU - Mathevon, Nicolas AU - Aubin, Thierry AU - Vielliard, Jacques AU - da Silva, Maria-Luisa AU - Sebe, Frédéric AU - Boscolo, Danilo PY - 2008/// UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0001580 ER -