Discrimination of acoustic stimuli and maintenance of graded alarm call structure in captive meerkats

  • Animals living in human care for several generations face the risk of losing natural behaviors, which can lead to reduced animal welfare. The goal of this study is to demonstrate that meerkats (Suricata suricatta) living in zoos can assess potential danger and respond naturally based on acoustic signals only. This includes that the graded information of urgency in alarm calls as well as a response to those alarm calls is retained in captivity. To test the response to acoustic signals with different threat potential, meerkats were played calls of various animals differing in size and threat (e.g., robin, raven, buzzard, jackal) while their behavior was observed. The emitted alarm calls were recorded and examined for their graded structure on the one hand and played back to them on the other hand by means of a playback experiment to see whether the animals react to their own alarm calls even in the absence of danger. A fuzzy clustering algorithm was used to analyze and classify the alarm calls. Subsequently, the features that best described the graded structure were isolated using the LASSO algorithm and compared to features already known from wild meerkats. The results show that the graded structure is maintained in captivity and can be described by features such as noise and duration. The animals respond to new threats and can distinguish animal calls that are dangerous to them from those that are not, indicating the preservation of natural cooperative behavior. In addition, the playback experiments show that the meerkats respond to their own alarm calls with vigilance and escape behavior. The findings can be used to draw conclusions about the intensity of alertness in captive meerkats and to adapt husbandry conditions to appropriate welfare.

Download full text files

Export metadata

Metadaten
Author:Sebastian SchneiderORCiDGND, Sarah Göttlich, Charlette Diercks, Paul Wilhelm DierkesORCiD
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-692724
DOI:https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11113064
ISSN:2076-2615
Parent Title (English):Animals
Publisher:MDPI
Place of publication:Basel
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Date of Publication (online):2021/10/27
Date of first Publication:2021/10/27
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2024/01/23
Tag:LASSO algorithm; acoustic features; alarm calls; animal welfare; bioacoustics; fuzzy clustering; graded structure; meerkats; natural behavior; playback experiment; suricates; vocalization; zoo
Volume:11
Issue:11, art. 3064
Article Number:3064
Page Number:16
First Page:1
Last Page:16
Note:
The study was supported by Opel-Zoo Foundation Professorship in Zoo Biology from the von Opel Hessische Zoostiftung.
HeBIS-PPN:517755459
Institutes:Biowissenschaften
Dewey Decimal Classification:5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 57 Biowissenschaften; Biologie / 570 Biowissenschaften; Biologie
5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 59 Tiere (Zoologie) / 590 Tiere (Zoologie)
Sammlungen:Universitätspublikationen
Licence (German):License LogoCreative Commons - CC BY - Namensnennung 4.0 International