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Paternal kin recognition in the high frequency / ultrasonic range in a solitary foraging mammal

Kessler, Sharon E.; Scheumann, Marina; Nash, Leanne T; Zimmermann, Elke

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Authors

Sharon E. Kessler

Marina Scheumann

Leanne T Nash

Elke Zimmermann



Abstract

Background Kin selection is a driving force in the evolution of mammalian social complexity. Recognition of paternal kin using vocalizations occurs in taxa with cohesive, complex social groups. This is the first investigation of paternal kin recognition via vocalizations in a small-brained, solitary foraging mammal, the grey mouse lemur (Microcebus murinus), a frequent model for ancestral primates. We analyzed the high frequency/ultrasonic male advertisement (courtship) call and alarm call. Results Multi-parametric analyses of the calls’ acoustic parameters and discriminant function analyses showed that advertisement calls, but not alarm calls, contain patrilineal signatures. Playback experiments controlling for familiarity showed that females paid more attention to advertisement calls from unrelated males than from their fathers. Reactions to alarm calls from unrelated males and fathers did not differ. Conclusions 1) Findings provide the first evidence of paternal kin recognition via vocalizations in a small-brained, solitarily foraging mammal. 2) High predation, small body size, and dispersed social systems may select for acoustic paternal kin recognition in the high frequency/ultrasonic ranges, thus limiting risks of inbreeding and eavesdropping by predators or conspecific competitors. 3) Paternal kin recognition via vocalizations in mammals is not dependent upon a large brain and high social complexity, but may already have been an integral part of the dispersed social networks from which more complex, kin-based sociality emerged.

Citation

Kessler, S. E., Scheumann, M., Nash, L. T., & Zimmermann, E. (2012). Paternal kin recognition in the high frequency / ultrasonic range in a solitary foraging mammal. BMC Ecology, 12(1), Article 26. https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6785-12-26

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Nov 2, 2012
Online Publication Date Nov 30, 2012
Publication Date Nov 30, 2012
Deposit Date Jul 16, 2018
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal BMC Ecology
Publisher BioMed Central
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 12
Issue 1
Article Number 26
DOI https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6785-12-26

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http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
© Kessler et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2012
This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.





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