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Infrasonic and low-frequency vocalizations from Siberian and Bengal tigers
Abstract
Tigers have many vocalizations including chuffling, growling, prusten, gurgling, grunting, and roaring. It has been well documented that the tiger’s high‐amplitude, low‐frequency roars, which are thought to be territorial in nature [C. Packer and A. E. Pusey, Sci. Am. 276, 52–59 (1997)] transmit for miles. It has been suggested that because some tigers inhabit dense jungles with limited visiblity, the capacity to hear low frequency may be beneficial for sensing and locating prey [G. T. Huang, J. J. Rosowski, and W. T. Peake, J. Comp. Physiol. A (2000)]. In an effort to understand more about these low‐frequency vocalizations and to provide data to other researchers testing hearing in anesthetized felids, 22 tigers, both Siberian and Bengal, are being recorded. A portable system can record from 3 Hz to 22 kHz. On‐site real‐time analysis of vocalizations is performed using a portable computer. Real‐time and edited playback of sonic and infrasonic tiger vocalizations is facilitated by car audio speakers capable of producing frequencies from 10 Hz–22 kHz. Initial findings have documented fundamental frequencies of some roars at 17.50 Hz. Other vocalizations, including chuffling, have fundamental frequencies of 35 Hz ±5. Playback of both real‐time and edited vocalizations appear to illicit behavioral responses, such as roaring, from male tigers.
... 36 Many benefits of large body size exist, but none has yet been confirmed empirically [3]. 37 From morphophysiological aspect [4] analyzed the maximum attainable body mass of 38 herbivorous mammals and concluded that larger hindgut fermenting mammals may exist 39 than are today. According to this recognition, morphophysiology of herbivorous mam-40 mals let these animals to grow larger, however it is controlled by other factors, which do 41 not let the extant animals fully exploit their theoretical physiological limits. ...
... The black rhino 414 (Diceros bicornis) also emits infrasound, and the minimum frequency is 23 Hz [98], alt-415 hough there is no evidence for calls fall predominantly in the infrasound range, however 416 it cannot be excluded that rhinos may use infrasound for finding mates. Among Felidae, 417 infrasound-based communication is also known: Panthera tigris also employs infrasound 418 [99] from 10 Hz [37]. Among other, secretive, or forest-living animals, it is also reported 419 at okapi [100] as from 9 Hz [34] and among big sized, not in-herd living animals at giraffe 420 [35]. ...
Tendency of the vertebrates to increase body sizes during evolution is recognized in the 19th century. Beside the contradictory Cope’s rule, other ‘rules’ were recognized, however not fully explained the evolutionary size growth phenomenon. Recently the resource rule offered a plausible explanation to this, although it left open the rapid evolutionary size growth of the Mysticeti (Mammalia, Vertebrata). Here, the rapid and significant evolutionary size growth of Mysticeti and the odontocete sperm whale is explained by the innovative application of the long-range communication channels. Regarding all analysed extant species using infrasound either in aquatic or terrestrial environs for long-range communication, a correlation between the body size/mass and maximum propagation of the applied infrasound is recognized. Correlation of the body sizes of these infrasound generating vertebrate taxa with the maximum range of audibility reflects the acoustical characteristics of the applied long-range communication channels. The wider the audibility in the communication channel is, the greater the body size of the species using the SOFAR channel for long-range communication. Other, non-aquatic, terrestrial vertebrate species (African elephants, cassowary) also present the same phenomenon suggesting that application of the long-range communication channels may have universal role in evolutionary size growth among social animals.
... Elephants have been documented using a low frequency call, at 12-35 Hz, and that can result in a gathering of elephants that are (12) often up to 10 miles away . Tigers are "exquisitely" (23,24) (25). ...
... Foram documentados elefantes a emitirem um chamamento, na gama de 12-35 Hz e que pode resultar numa reunião [12] de elefantes, frequentmente a 15 km de distância . Os tigres estão "requintadamente" predispostos à resposta [23,24] [ 25] aos infrasons bem como os rinocerontes . Seres aquáticas, tais como, peixes, cefalopodes e crustáceos possuem uma "sensibilidade aguda" a infrasons (até inferiores a 1 Hz), tendo sido já sugerido que esta capacidade é fundamental para a sua navegação (26). ...
... Results of acoustic playback studies with African savannah elephants on female recognition of the contact call (McComb et al., 2003) and on signal assessment of the musth rumble (Poole, 1999) suggest individual-and sizerelated differences in acoustic production, which elicit questions regarding individualism, social recognition, and size assessment. Adult females were able to discriminate familiar and unfamiliar contact calls, and it appeared that the fundamental frequency contour extracted from the harmonics was the key characteristic in the signal that could be used for distinguishing individual calls at a distance (McComb et 8 al., 2000;McComb et al., 2003). Adult males responded to playback of musth rumbles in a way that suggests they are able to assess characteristics of the caller in this acoustic signal, but it is unclear whether they assess size in the signal or whether they recognize the caller. ...
... The role and production mechanism of infrasound varies among species. Other species known to produce infrasonic sounds include the okapi, Bengal and Siberian tigers, giraffe, and Sumatran rhino (von Muggenthaler, 1992;von Muggenthaler, 2000;von Muggenthaler et al., 200 I;von Muggenthaler et al., 2003 ). ...
This study compares classification methods applied to an acoustic repertoire of the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus). Recordings were made of captive elephants at the Oregon Zoo in Portland, OR 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 three methods. First, calls were classified manually using perceptual aural cues plus visual inspection of spectrograms for differentiation of fundamental frequency contour, tonality, and duration. Second, a set of 29 acoustic features was measured for nonoverlapping calls using the MATLAB-based program Osprey, then principal component analysis was applied to reduce the feature set. A neural network was used for classification. Finally, hidden Markov models, commonly used for pattern recognition, were utilized to recognize call types using perceptually-weighted cepstral features as input. All manual and automated classification methods agreed on structural distinction of six basic call types (trumpets, squeaks, squeals, roars, rumbles, and barks), with two call types (squeaks and squeals) being highly variable. Given the consistency of results among the classification methods across geographically and socially disparate subject groups, we believe automated call detection could successfully be applied to acoustic monitoring of Asian elephants.
... While the uses of sound occurring in the range of human hearing have been intensively studied, and similarly studied sounds above the upper limit of human hearing (e.g., ultrasounds in bats, toothed whales, rodents, frogs and insects), very little is known about the sound below that range. Such frequencies (infrasound) were documented in whales (Berta, Sumich & Kovacs, 2006;Mourlam & Orliac, 2017), elephants (Larom et al., 1997;McComb et al., 2000;McComb et al., 2003), tigers (Von Muggenthaler, 2000), rhinoceroses (Policht et al., 2008;Von Muggenthaler et al., 2003). Only a few bird species are known to produce very low frequencies. ...
Only a few bird species are known to produce low-frequency vocalizations. We analyzed the display vocalizations of Western Capercaillie males kept in breeding centers and identified harmonically structured signals with a fundamental frequency of 28.7 ± 1.2 Hz (25.6–31.6 Hz). These low-frequency components temporally overlap with the Whetting phase (96% of its duration) and they significantly contribute to the distinct vocal expression between individuals. The resulting model of discrimination analysis classified 67.6% vocalizations (63%, cross-validated result) correctly to the specific individual in comparison to the probability by chance of 12.5%. We discuss a possible function of low-frequency components that remains unclear. The occurrence of such low frequencies is surprising as this grouse is substantially smaller than cassowaries (Southern cassowary Casuarius casuarius and Dwarf cassowary Casuarius bennetti ) , the species that produces similarly low frequencies. Because these low frequency components temporarily overlap with the Whetting phase, they are hardly audible from a distance larger than several meters.
... It is also known that a number of animals, including tigers, elephants, and dolphins can detect infrasound (VON MUGGENTHALER, 2000). Because many devices (such as trucks, pumps, filters, and other engines) used in captive environments generate seismic vibration and other infrasonic sound, there is a possibility that they can distress some animals (MORGAN and TROMBORG, 2007). ...
Over the past 40 years the Zoological Garden of Bucharest has continuously changed from multiple points of view: animal numbers and variety, enclosure design, administration or therapeutical methods. Different aspects such as political background, restricted access to external knowledge and limited medical equipment have influenced the shaping of the Zoo as it is today. To know the background of the Zoo is of historical interest, but it also serves as a starting point of further locally applicable solutions that could positively influence welfare status, health and disease control of the animals, as well as improving staff safety and input. To have a better understanding of the data gathered for the present study it is important to take note of the historical background on which the Bucharest Zoo was formed. During the periods between and after the world wars, animals were kept sporadically in small private collections, menageries and circuses. However, on the dawn of the newly instated communist regime, during the 1950’s, it became almost a fashion that every township to have its own small zoo. This is how Romania was quite soon scattered with hundreds of small zoos that were nothing more than a compound of a few, minuscule iron cages, where single individuals from (generally endemic) species were housed and displayed for the local public. Unfortunately these animal collections survived the passing of political regimes and today remain untouched after more than 50 years. The Bucharest Zoo was born during the same time, under the same auspices, but being the country’s Capital, it had to be build on a larger scale.
... Along with the 'chuff ' , the 'growl' and 'hiss' are consistently listed as part of the tiger vocal repertoire (Muggenthaler 2000;Sunquist and Sunquist 2002;Thapar 2004;Walsh 2004). 'Growls' have been observed to occur during conflict between two or more tigers and when mating and may serve as a warning signal (D. ...
Tigers (Panthera tigris) are one of the world’s most recognizable big cats and all surviving subspecies are critically endangered. Despite the need to understand tiger behaviour in order to enhance captive care and conservation efforts, knowledge of tiger acoustic communication has relied almost entirely on aural descriptions. We measured the acoustic characteristics of multiple, distinctly different tiger sounds and linked these sounds to behavioural contexts. Remote audio recordings of five captive Sumatran tigers (P. t. sumatrae) at Taronga Zoo, New South Wales, Australia, were obtained in May–July 2014. The 331 highest quality recordings of tiger vocalizations were separated into 7 categories (‘moan’, ‘arf’, ‘mrr’, ‘growl’, ‘roar’, ‘chuff’ and ‘hiss’) and quantified regarding fundamental and peak frequencies, duration and, in some cases, harmonics or pulse rate. Classification of the most frequently uttered vocalizations was also determined with a multinomial logistic regression based on measurements of peak frequency (Hz), fundamental frequency (Hz) and duration (s). Our findings also indicate that, although loud vocalizations uttered by tigers have often been categorized as ‘roars’, ‘roaring’ is relatively rare and is used only in contexts of pain, fear and/or high aggression, while the loud ‘moan’ is likely the more commonly heard vocalization and is frequently uttered by tigers in announcement/contact contexts.
... There were also reports of a major resonance of the abdominal viscera at 4 Hz during full body vibration (Rao & Ashley, 1976). After a publication by Muggenthaler (2000), a statement was reported throughout the media that 18 Hz infrasound from tigers can stun their prey and humans as well (American Institute of Physics, 2000), but the tiger's roar is more likely a broadband noise in the 36-100 Hz range (Klumuk, Riede, Walsh, & Titze, 2012;Titze et al., 2010). Even if it actually sounds threatening, there is no evidence to support this claim. ...
Over the last several decades low frequency and infrasound have become relevant to many fields of research – most recently psychology and musicology, among others. Interpretation of data from experimental research has raised concern that low frequency and infrasound could be potentially harmful to humans’ well-being. While the physiological and psychological effects of infrasound are well documented, a variety of myths promulgated by pseudoscientific authors and newspapers still make it difficult to distinguish between fact and fiction, especially for people with little or no knowledge in acoustics. Myths are widespread today and result mainly from the one-dimensional view on sound, out-of-context citations, and a number of “sensational” findings from biased studies. The aim of this review is to evaluate the relevance of data from a music-psychological and psychoacoustic point of view, to give a consistent overview of the history of research, to examine the transferability of findings, and to trace the origins of myths to debunk them. Additionally, general information about the characteristics of low frequency sound, its production, measurement, and difficulties in experimental research is given to avoid mistakes in future research.
... Les fréquences hors du spectre auditif humain sont perçues et produites par différentes espèces animales. Si les baleines utilisent par exemple les infrasons pour communiquer sur de très longues distances, les tigres s'en servent aussi pour paralyser leur proie, ce qui produit également son effet sur les humains (Muggenthaler, 2000). En effet, de nombreuses études ont exploré les effets néfastes de ces infrasons, notamment dans un but militaire durant la Seconde ...
A ce jour, six millions de français sont atteints de troubles de l'audition. Face à ce problème de santé publique, des outils performants d'exploration de la fonction auditive sont indispensables. La Speech ABR (Speech Auditory Brainstem Response ou Réponse du tronc cérébral auditif à la parole) est un outil prometteur, comme marqueur électrophysiologique fin de l'encodage neuronal de la parole. Cependant, sa méthodologie reste peu développée, son origine neuronale incertaine et elle n'a jamais été enregistrée chez le malentendant porteur d'aides auditives. Le premier axe de cette thèse porte sur les générateurs neuronaux de la Speech ABR. Le développement d'une méthodologie de recueil topographique de cette réponse jusqu'alors décrite comme strictement sous-corticale, a d'abord suggéré la possibilité d'un générateur cortical. Une étude en stéréo-électroencéphalographie a ensuite confirmé l'existence d'une activité Speech ABR dans les cortex auditifs primaires bilatéraux. Ce résultat apporte un éclairage nouveau sur la représentation des sons de parole par système nerveux auditif. Le second axe concerne l'étude de la Speech ABR chez le malentendant appareillé. Après avoir développé une méthodologie de stimulation acoustique directement au travers des aides auditives, nous avons étudié la plasticité neuronale induite par le port d'aides auditives. Les résultats montrent une amélioration de l'identification des phonèmes amplifiés, liée à une représentation corticale modifiée et à un encodage fréquentiel rééquilibré. Ces toutes premières preuves de plasticité neuronales dès les 4 premiers mois d'utilisation des aides auditives ouvrent de nouveaux espoirs thérapeutiques
The record of seismic, hydroacoustic, and infrasonic waves is essential to detect, identify, and localize sources of both natural and anthropogenic origin. To guarantee traceability and inter-station comparability, as well as an estimation of the measurement uncertainties leading to a better monitoring of natural disasters and environmental aspects, suitable measurement standards and reliable calibration procedures of sensors, especially in the low-frequency range down to 0.01 Hz, are required. Most of all with regard to the design goal of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation’s International Monitoring System, which requires the stations to be operational nearly 100% of the time, the on-site calibration during operation is of special importance. The purpose of this paper is to identify suitable excitation sources and elaborate necessary requirements for on-site calibrations. We give an extensive literature review of a large variety of anthropogenic and natural sources of seismic, hydroacoustic, and infrasonic waves, describe their most prominent features regarding signal and spectral characteristics, explicitly highlight some source examples, and evaluate the reviewed sources with respect to requirements for on-site calibrations such as frequency bandwidth, signal properties as well as the applicability in terms of cost–benefit. According to our assessment, earthquakes stand out across all three waveform technologies as a good natural excitation signal meeting the majority of the requirements. Furthermore, microseisms and microbaroms allow a calibration at very low frequencies. We also find that in each waveform technique man-made controlled sources such as drop weights or air guns are in good agreement with the required properties, although limitations may arise regarding the practicability. Using these sources, procedures will be established allowing calibration without record interrupting, thereby improving data quality and the identification of treaty-related events.
We examine the low-frequency limit of hearing of the mammalian ear through the analytical modelling of the natural frequency of the tympanic membrane. The resulting equation of the natural frequency of the modelled tympanic membrane is numerically verified against previous theoretical studies, and is statistically validated against the experimental data on the low-frequency limit of hearing. By utilizing the Wilcoxon signed-rank test; W-values of 29 (p value = 0.25014) and 23 (p value = 0.11642) are respectively obtained for the 0.2% and 0.3% prestrain (at 5% significance level for sample size of 13). We fail to reject the null hypothesis as the W-values are within the critical values of the test statistics, and therefore conclude that the tympanic membrane acts as a low-frequency limiter of acoustic stimulus. Based on our study, we can predict the low-frequency limit of hearing in mammals (e.g., for the whale as 3.6 Hz and for the zebra as 44.0 Hz).
The present work explores several music practices from a spatial metaphor perspec tive, as if sounds could create places of their own. Once inhabited, these places allow for the creation of meaning and identity. Physical properties of sound and the circular disposition of both sonic and musical communication practices, as well as some specific communicational, philosophical and phenomenological theories support the author's choice to investigate music through its ability to create spheres of meaning. Those who inhabit music spheres are herein called sound beings: beings who invent themselves through sounds? who sculpt in music their own identity, society, culture and myths. Sound beings identify each other through reverberation. Unveiling them consists the main objective of this investigation. A sound being is not only he or she who creates music, but every being who uses it to communicate. Music here encompasses listening, dancing, singing, playing an instrument, participating in a music performance or sound ritual, having a taste in music, criticizing music, and all possible attributions of meaning that come from sounds.The power of sonic propagation, stopped only by vacuum, rules out any time or regional restrictions for the present enterprise: this work irresponsibly explores the musicking of all beings, from hominids to contemporary sound beings in every continent. This wide framework (which I'm afraid means no frame at all) forces me to acknowledge that most translation attempts will not be possible without (some) equivocation. However, it will be precisely by the means of equivocation that we will try to approach these beings, their histories and their places
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