Most people associate vocal mimicry with parrots, with records dating
back to the 1500’s where Henry VIII of England had a Grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus) renowned
for mimicking his servants. But did you know bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops
truncatus), harbour seals (Phoca vitulina), killer whales (Orcinus
orca), orangutans (Pongo spp.) and African savannah elephants (Loxodonta
africana) have all been known to display vocal mimicry? (Kelley & Healy
2011)
A camera shutter, a car alarm and a
chainsaw aren’t exactly the noises that come to mind when you think of a
songbird. Sadly enough, these are some of the sounds made by one of the most
impressive vocal mimics, the lyrebirds (Menuridae). Watch the video below to see David
Attenborough witness the lyrebird in action.
WATCH: Attenborough: the
amazing Lyre Bird sings like a chainsaw
Video: The Superb lyrebird displaying an array of sounds, including bird songs,
camera’s, car alarms and chainsaws.
Vocal mimicry requires a mimic (in this case the lyrebird), a model (the
sound being mimicked) and the receiver (the unsuspecting individual the mimic
is trying to pursue).
Dalziell & Magrath (2012) found that the Superb lyrebird (Menura
novaehollandiae) is capable of successfully deceiving other species or
conspecifics into believing their sounds are coming from one of their own. The
benefits from this sneaky deception include protection from predators, increased
resources such as food and shelter, and mating advantages (Dalziell &
Magrath 2012).
There’s always a downside though. The elaborate songs of the lyrebird can often
lead to detection from predators, conflicting signal requirements (accurate
recognition from the receiver) and costs imposed by the model (the sound being
mimicked) (Dalziell & Magrath 2012).
I will continue this topic in my future posts, where I will discuss
selection strengths, accuracy and versatility.
REFERENCES:
Dalziell, A.H. & Magrath, R.D. 2012,
"Fooling the experts: accurate vocal mimicry in the song of the superb
lyrebird, Menura novaehollandiae", Animal Behaviour, vol. 83, no. 6, pp.
1401-1410.
Kelley, L.A. & Healy, S.D. 2011,
"Vocal mimicry", Current Biology, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. R9-R10.
VIDEO: BBC Worldwide, 2007. “Bird sounds
from the lyre bird – David Attenborough - BBC wildlife”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjE0Kdfos4Y
Accessed 7th April 2015
Vocal mimicry is indeed quite incredible. Another species often over-looked are Mynahs. I’m interested to know more about how elephants show vocal mimicry. Also, I was wondering … could the learning of language in humans be considered vocal mimicry? Very interesting.
ReplyDeleteVocal mimicry has been documented in both African (Loxodonta africana) and Asian (Elephas maximus) elephants by Stroeger & Manger (2014). The sounds recorded have been from captive elephants and range from squelching, croaking, creaking and humming noises. So far, research is limited and no information is available about the vocal learning within communication systems in either of the aforementioned species.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to the learning of language in humans, I think this is debatable. If you take toddlers for instance, they mimic noises and sounds and eventually associate those to words or actions. Learning that affects the usage and understanding of the sounds and words however, is known as contextual learning (Janik & Slater, 1997). So perhaps you could consider vocal mimicry to be involved in the early stages of learning a language, but not in its entirety.
Janik, V. & Slater, P.B. 1997, "Vocal Learning in Mammals" in Elsevier Science & Technology, , pp. 59-99.
Stoeger, A.S. & Manger, P. 2014, "Vocal learning in elephants: neural bases and adaptive context", Current opinion in neurobiology, vol. 28, pp. 101-107.