Browsing by Author "University of Minnesota Animal Communication Lab"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    Advertisement call length preferences of female Cope's gray treefrogs (Hyla chrysoscelis) in two-alternative choice tests
    (2020-07-23) LaBarbera, Katie; Nelson, Peggy B; Bee, Mark A; klabarbe@umn.edu; LaBarbera, Katie; University of Minnesota Animal Communication Lab
    Female Hyla chrysoscelis collected from the wild during the breeding season were tested in two-alternative choice tests for their preference between two synthetic calls, modeled closely after wild male calls, differing in their call length. This experiment was designed to examine whether females exhibit proportional processing (e.g., Weber's Law) of the acoustic signal. The data are being released along with the publication based upon them.
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    Data for: Inconsistent sexual signaling degrades optimal mating decisions in animals
    (2020-03-09) Tanner, Jessie C; Bee, Mark A; jessie.c.tanner@gmail.com; Tanner, Jessie C; University of Minnesota Animal Communication Lab
    Data from a series of phonotaxis tests used to investigate the effects of within-individual variation (inconsistency) in male signals and ambient chorus noise on female mating decisions in Cope's gray treefrog. This dataset is among only a few generated to examine the effects of within-individual variation in signal production on animal communication. The data are now being released in support of a publication describing our findings.
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    Data for: Species recognition is constrained by chorus noise, but not inconsistency in signal production, in Cope's gray treefrog (Hyla chrysoscelis)
    (2020-06-18) Tanner, Jessie C; Bee, Mark A; jessie.c.tanner@gmail.com; Tanner, Jessie C; University of Minnesota Animal Communication Lab
    Optimal mate choice based on the assessment of communication signals can be constrained by multiple sources of noise. This dataset was created to examine the effects of two possible noise sources: ambient noise caused by the treefrog chorus and the inconsistency in signal production inherent to many animal communication systems. Our data were generated using two-choice phonotaxis tests of female Cope's gray treefrogs.
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    Data supporting "Neural Basis of Acoustic Species Recognition in a Cryptic Species Complex"
    (2021-08-14) Gupta, Saumya; Alluri, Rishi K; Rose, Gary J; Bee, Mark A; gupta333@umn.edu; Gupta, Saumya; University of Minnesota Animal Communication Lab
    Sexual traits that promote species recognition are important drivers of reproductive isolation, especially among closely related species. Identifying neural processes that shape species differences in recognition is crucial for understanding the causal mechanisms of reproductive isolation. Temporal patterns are salient features of sexual signals that are widely used in species recognition by several taxa, including anurans. Recent advances in our understanding of temporal processing by the anuran auditory system provide an excellent opportunity to investigate the neural basis of species-specific recognition. The anuran inferior colliculus (IC) consists of neurons that are selective for temporal features of calls. Of potential relevance are auditory neurons known as interval-counting neurons (ICNs) that are often selective for the pulse rate of conspecific advertisement calls. Here, we took advantage of a species differences in temporal selectivity for pulsatile advertisement calls exhibited by two cryptic species of gray treefrog (Hyla chrysoscelis and Hyla versicolor) to test the hypothesis that ICNs mediate acoustic species recognition. We tested this hypothesis by examining the extent to which the threshold number of pulses required to elicit behavioral responses from females and neural responses from ICNs was similar within each species but potentially different between the two species. The associated data for this work is being released prior to submission of the manuscript for peer review.
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    Data supporting "Vocal sacs do not act as visual cues in acoustically guided courtship in Cope’s gray treefrog (Hyla chrysoscelis)"
    (2020-06-22) Li, Hongyu; Schrode, Katrina M; Bee, Mark A; mbee@umn.edu; Bee, Mark A; University of Minnesota Animal Communication Lab
    Components in multiple sensory modalities are present in many animal signals, which provides opportunities for receivers to use them as complementary cues in communication, especially in noisy environments that impose difficulty on signal perception. In frogs, it has been suspected that females use the visual byproduct of call production - the inflation of vocal sacs - as a cue in finding individual calling males in loud choruses. This mate recognition and selection behavior was traditionally considered as acoustically guided but recently there has been rising discussion on whether it was a multimodal process. We investigated whether female Cope’s gray treefrog (Hyla chrysoscelis) use visual cues in the context of sexual communication to find and select males. We performed playback experiments in a field setting under natural light using robotic frog models as visual stimuli and examined females’ responses. Acoustic stimuli were played back in quiet, in noise, and with ambiguous acoustic features. Despite the various acoustic conditions tested in a realistic lighting environment, we did not find any evidence that females use visual cues in the context of sexual communication. We review previous reports on the use of vocal sacs as visual cues in nocturnal anurans and discuss potential reasons for the stark contrast between those reports and this research.