Gray
mouse lemurs use voice recognition to avoid mating with their paternal
relatives, an ability previously thought only to exist in large-brained
animals living in complex social groups.
Gray mouse lemurs are
nocturnal foragers living in the forests of Madagascar. Parental care
is provided solely by the mother and her kin and though they generally
sleep in groups, they forage alone. In its den
se
forest habitat where scents do not travel well, ultrasonic vocal
communication is used for basic social interactions (such as mating
calls). Males have large ranges, often encompassing or overlapping the
ranges of several females (including their daughters). Given that they
cannot develop familiarity-based social cues to differentiate
paternal-kin from non-kin, how do they avoid inbreeding?
To
find out, Sharon Kessler (Arizona State University and lead author) and
her team looked at female mouse lemur responses to mating and alarm
calls from their father and an unrelated male. Behaviours such as
approaching the speaker or staring at it during the call were considered
attentive. They found that while there was no difference in response to
alarm calls, females paid more attention to the mating call of an
unrelated male than to that of their father. Acoustic analyses confirmed
that mating calls have a "paternal signature" that alarm calls lack.
The results demonstrate that neither a big brain or complex social
systems are necessary to recognize the call of your kin. The researchers
also point out this inbreeding-avoidance method may be very similar to
that of our ancestors. Kessler commented, "Given that more complex forms
of sociality with cohesive foraging groups are thought to have evolved
from an ancestral solitary forager much like the mouse lemur, this
suggests that the mechanisms for kin recognition like those seen here
may be the foundation from which more complex forms of kin-based
sociality evolved.”
Photo credit: David Thyberg/Shutterstock.
To read their paper, click here: http://bit.ly/11sJAAN
http://www.livescience.com/
http://www.biomedcentral.com/
Gray
mouse lemurs use voice recognition to avoid mating with their paternal
relatives, an ability previously thought only to exist in large-brained
animals living in complex social groups.
Gray mouse lemurs are nocturnal foragers living in the forests of Madagascar. Parental care is provided solely by the mother and her kin and though they generally sleep in groups, they forage alone. In its den
Gray mouse lemurs are nocturnal foragers living in the forests of Madagascar. Parental care is provided solely by the mother and her kin and though they generally sleep in groups, they forage alone. In its den
se
forest habitat where scents do not travel well, ultrasonic vocal
communication is used for basic social interactions (such as mating
calls). Males have large ranges, often encompassing or overlapping the
ranges of several females (including their daughters). Given that they
cannot develop familiarity-based social cues to differentiate
paternal-kin from non-kin, how do they avoid inbreeding?
To find out, Sharon Kessler (Arizona State University and lead author) and her team looked at female mouse lemur responses to mating and alarm calls from their father and an unrelated male. Behaviours such as approaching the speaker or staring at it during the call were considered attentive. They found that while there was no difference in response to alarm calls, females paid more attention to the mating call of an unrelated male than to that of their father. Acoustic analyses confirmed that mating calls have a "paternal signature" that alarm calls lack.
The results demonstrate that neither a big brain or complex social systems are necessary to recognize the call of your kin. The researchers also point out this inbreeding-avoidance method may be very similar to that of our ancestors. Kessler commented, "Given that more complex forms of sociality with cohesive foraging groups are thought to have evolved from an ancestral solitary forager much like the mouse lemur, this suggests that the mechanisms for kin recognition like those seen here may be the foundation from which more complex forms of kin-based sociality evolved.”
Photo credit: David Thyberg/Shutterstock.
To read their paper, click here: http://bit.ly/11sJAAN
http://www.livescience.com/
http://www.biomedcentral.com/
To find out, Sharon Kessler (Arizona State University and lead author) and her team looked at female mouse lemur responses to mating and alarm calls from their father and an unrelated male. Behaviours such as approaching the speaker or staring at it during the call were considered attentive. They found that while there was no difference in response to alarm calls, females paid more attention to the mating call of an unrelated male than to that of their father. Acoustic analyses confirmed that mating calls have a "paternal signature" that alarm calls lack.
The results demonstrate that neither a big brain or complex social systems are necessary to recognize the call of your kin. The researchers also point out this inbreeding-avoidance method may be very similar to that of our ancestors. Kessler commented, "Given that more complex forms of sociality with cohesive foraging groups are thought to have evolved from an ancestral solitary forager much like the mouse lemur, this suggests that the mechanisms for kin recognition like those seen here may be the foundation from which more complex forms of kin-based sociality evolved.”
Photo credit: David Thyberg/Shutterstock.
To read their paper, click here: http://bit.ly/11sJAAN
http://www.livescience.com/
http://www.biomedcentral.com/
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