Pied tamarins go multimodal in response to anthropogenic noise

Sounds produced by human activities are often loud and may mask acoustic signals used by other species for communication. To circumvent this, animals may use various strategies, including shifting modality completely or complementing acoustic information by also using another modality of communication. Here we tested the overlooked multimodal shift hypothesis using pied tamarins (Saguinus bicolor) as models. We predicted that in noisier areas the species would exhibit more scent marking behaviour (i.e., olfactory communication), while reducing the emission of long calls (i.e., acoustic communication). We collected information on vocal and scent marking behaviour in nine groups of wild pied tamarins in Manaus, Brazil. We found that scent marking occurrence increased with noise amplitude, though the number of long calls did not change. Thus, our results do not suggest a shift between channels but complementation of information, where scent marking may counteract against the compromising o...

人类活动产生的声响往往音量较高，可能会掩盖其他物种用于交流的声学信号。为规避这一干扰，动物可采用多种策略，包括完全切换通信模态，或是通过使用另一通信模态来补充声学信息。本研究以双色獠狨（Saguinus bicolor）为模型物种，对这一被忽视的多模态切换假说（multimodal shift hypothesis）开展了验证。我们预测，在噪音更强的区域，该物种会表现出更多的气味标记行为（scent marking behaviour，即嗅觉通信（olfactory communication）），同时减少长鸣叫声（long calls，即声学通信（acoustic communication））的发出。我们在巴西马瑙斯对9个野生双色獠狨种群的发声与气味标记行为开展了数据采集。研究结果显示，气味标记行为的出现频次随噪音声级升高而增加，但长鸣叫声的数量并未发生变化。因此，本研究结果并未显示出通信渠道间的切换，而是呈现出信息互补的现象：气味标记或可抵消噪音对通信的负面影响……