Red squirrels use territorial vocalizations for kin discrimination

摘要: The ability to discriminate among individuals, or classes of can provide animals with important fitness benefits. Although several mechanisms for discrimination are possible, most require show stable phenotypic variation that reflects their identity membership in a particular class (e.g. sex, mate, kin). For territorial rarely interact physically, vocalizations could serve as long-distance signals facilitate discrimination. In this study, we tested whether the rattle North American red squirrels, Tamiasciurus hudsonicus, repeatable, and they hence basis multiple types We measured four structural features from two rattles each 76 marked squirrels. All were which is consistent being individually distinctive. then conducted playback experiment determine squirrels use Specifically, between neighbours non-neighbours, kin (coefficient relatedness, r ≥ 0.25) non-kin (r