Evidence for conceptual semantics is well established in monkeys, however this basis of human language is less evident in the great apes. In order to study semantic communications in chimpanzees, I analyzed alarm calls produced towards a blimp as it was flying overhead. I then replayed a set of these alarm calls to the chimps on a different day. The chimps appeared to act in a manner consistent with the presence of the blimp. The calls they produced in response to the playback stimuli were nearly identical to the calls that were produced during the actual flyover. Though the data collected were not sufficient to support a definitive claim, it does appear that the chimpanzees of the study have a meaning-laden vocalization for the aerial stimuli. Whether this call is specific to the blimp or generalizable to other aerial threats is yet to be determined. / by Alyssa M. Raymond. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2012. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2012. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Elephants' complex societies, well-developed communication systems, evolutionary history and close working relationship with humans make them an important species for studies of cognition but research on elephant cognition is sparse. In this thesis I aim to illuminate the social cognition involved in the interpretation and production of visual signals by African elephants (Loxodonta africana). My results are intended to contribute to the cross-species literature on social cognition and help to elucidate wild elephant social behaviour. I studied captive elephants, housed at an elephant-back safari company in Victoria Falls, and wild elephants in Hwange National Park, both in Zimbabwe. Wild elephants display a vast array of postures, actions and signals. I found that elephants recognise visual attentiveness in others when they signal silently, producing more signals when their audience can see them, and using the body and face orientation of an audience to judge their attention. When responding to typically human visual signals, elephants immediately responded correctly to deictic gestures, including variants of pointing that they were unlikely to have already experienced. These results indicate elephants' astonishing sensitivity to even subtle social cues. I found no indication that elephants reason about mental states such as false beliefs, or rationality; however, limitations of the experimental design meant I was unlikely to find such an ability even if it is present in elephants. Furthermore, I discovered that elephants have a form of referential indication in their natural communication in the wild. Elephants match their direction of attention with a type of trunk action produced by a group member. Attending to human-like signals, and interpreting them as communicative is an advantage for any animal working with humans and that ability might explain the choice of species that are ancestors of today's domestic animals.

Relatively little is known about the vocal repertoire of Asian elephants (Elephas maximus), and a categorization of basic call types and modifications of these call types by quantitative acoustic parameters is needed to examine acoustic variability within and among call types, to examine individuality, to determine communicative function of calls via playback, to compare species and populations, and to develop rigorous call recognition algorithms for monitoring populations. This study defines an acoustic repertoire of Asian elephants based on acoustic parameters, compares repertoire usage among groups and individuals, and validates structural distinction among call types through comparison of manual and automated classification methods. Recordings were made of captive elephants at the Oregon Zoo in Portland, OR, USA, and of domesticated elephants in Thailand. Acoustic and behavioral data were collected in a variety of social contexts and environmental noise conditions. Calls were classified using perceptual aural cues plus visual inspection of spectrograms, then acoustic features were measured, then automated classification was run. The final repertoire was defined by six basic call types (Bark, Roar, Rumble, Bark, Squeal, Squeal, and Trumpet), five call combinations and modifications with these basic calls forming their constituent parts (Roar-Rumble, Squeal-Squeak, Squeak train, Squeak-Bark, and Trumpet-Roar), and the Blow. Given the consistency of classifications results for calls from geographically and socially disparate subject groups, it seems possible that automated call detection algorithms could be developed for acoustic monitoring of Asian elephants.

The European rabbit lives in defined social groups of between two and about twenty individuals. There are distinct social hierarchies within each group. Rabbits are known to scent-mark their environment with secretions from several glands, and the secretion of the submandibular cutaneous gland is strongly correlated with social status. Dominant, male rabbits have a higher secretory activity of the gland, and show much more scent-marking behaviour than do any other individuals within the social group. This study was principally conducted at Hope Farm, Cattai National Park in New South Wales, Australia.The proteinaceous components of the secretion varied between individuals, but the protein profile of an individual did not change over time.It was found that dominant rabbits chin mark preferentially at the entrances to warrens, and at the boundaries of their territory.The work in this study provides new insights into the way that rabbit semiochemical messages work. The difference between the secretion of a subordinate and a dominant rabbit appears to be due to the presence or absence of one compound, 2-phenoxy ethanol. This compound, with known fixative properties, supports the idea that the only difference between dominant and subordinate secretions is whether or not they persist in the environment after marking. Such a mechanism for asserting dominance may be much more common in mammals than is apparent from the published literature / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Communication is an essential component of animal social systems and a diverse suite of signals can be found in the natural environment. An area of animal communication that, for technical reasons, we know very little about is the field of ‘movement-based’ or ‘dynamic’ visual signals. In this thesis, I make use of recent advances in measurement and analysis techniques, including digital video and image motion processing tools, to improve our understanding of how movement-based signals are adjusted according to signalling context. I measured and characterised the flamboyant claw-waving displays of male fiddler crabs (Genus Uca) and made use of their transparent lifestyle to record the behavioural contexts in which these signals are produced.¶ The claw-waving displays of seven Australian species of fiddler crab are compared and contrasted to show that these signals are species-specific, but also vary within and between individuals. I show that the species Uca perplexa produces different types of signal in different behavioural contexts, a lateral wave for courtship, and a vertical wave during short-range agonistic and courtship interactions. The structure of the lateral courtship waves of Uca perplexa vary according to the distance of signal receivers, the first time this kind of relationship has been shown in a dynamic visual signal. Finally, I describe and analyse the signalling and orientation behaviour of U. elegans during courtship herding, an unusual mating system that uses the claw-waving display in a novel way.¶ The adjustments made by fiddler crabs to their displays during changes in behavioural contexts suggest that the fine-scale context-sensitivity of animal signals may be far more widespread in communication than hitherto recognised.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 154-176). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Hypothesized functions of complex song in birds include a role in mate attraction and territory defense and, through regional dialects, in genetic substructuring of populations and speciation. The necessary first step in testing such functions is a detailed characterization of song organization and variability. This is provided for the Northern House Wren (Troglodytes aedon), a species noted for complex song, but lacking detailed descriptions. The species was studied at two sites in Alberta with a sample of 15,000 songs from 15 males. Males sang in long bouts, each song composed of multiple syllable types and repeated many times before switching. The population repertoire of 27 syllables was almost entirely shared, but used to construct novel repertoires of up to 200 different song types for individual males without evidence of a ceiling. Additional flexibility and constraints in song construction are discussed in view of the above noted functions of song complexity. / x, 111 leaves : ill., maps ; 29 cm

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury, 2000. / A thesis presented to the University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, December, 2000. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of North Carolina at Wilmington, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves: 31-35)