US EditionElephant Seals Recognize Their Rivals From Years Prior, Study Finds
Male northern elephant seals remember rival vocal identities across seasons and adjust behavior to avoid costly fights, researcher Casey said.
- On December 1, researchers reported male northern elephant seals recognize rivals from last year and adjust behavior during playback recordings of rival calls at breeding beaches in central California.
- Returning males revisit the same beaches at Año Nuevo Island, encountering familiar rivals and using vocal identity to avoid costly dominance displays and battles.
- Playing recordings showed seals oriented faster and often retreated to a familiar dominant rival from last year, responded less to a subordinate rival from the previous season, and rarely to unfamiliar males from distant colonies.
- Now, the team studying reproductive success reports that memory of individual voices influences contest outcomes and links behavioural and physiological measures to alpha males.
- Beyond immediate findings, researchers report voices likened to names shape breeding-season interactions, and Caroline Casey will present these findings Monday, Dec. 1, at the Sixth Joint Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America and Acoustical Society of Japan.
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18 Articles
How would you react if, years later, you suddenly heard the voice of an old friend, or that colleague with whom you once clashed? Chances are, memories would immediately come flooding back. But we're not the only ones with such a vocal memory: male elephant seals recognize the call of their rival a year later […] Want to know more about science? Read the latest articles on Scientias.nl .
Elephant Seals Recognize Their Rivals From Years Prior
Caroline Casey and her team study the seals on Ano Nuevo Island off the coast of California, and they have observed male elephant seals engaging in dominance displays year after year. This led them to wonder if the seals remembered their past bouts. To test this, the team would find a male seal returning to the island and play recorded calls from his old rivals.
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