Monica Padilla de la Torre
Mother-offspring recognition via contact calls in cattle, Bos taurus.
Padilla de la Torre, Monica; Briefer, Elodie F.; Ochocki, Brad M.; McElligott, Alan G.; Reader, Tom
Authors
Elodie F. Briefer
Brad M. Ochocki
Alan G. McElligott
Dr TOM READER TOM.READER@NOTTINGHAM.AC.UK
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
Abstract
Individual recognition in gregarious species is fundamental in order to avoid misdirected parental investment. In ungulates, two very different parental care strategies have been identified: ‘hider’ offspring usually lie concealed in vegetation whereas offspring of ‘follower’ species remain with their mothers while they forage. These two strategies have been suggested to impact on mother-offspring vocal recognition, with unidirectional recognition of the mother by offspring occurring in hiders and bidirectional recognition in followers. In domestic cattle, Bos taurus, a facultative hider species, vocal communication and recognition have not been studied in detail under free-ranging conditions, where cows and calves can graze freely and where hiding behaviour can occur. We hypothesized that, as a hider species, cattle under these circumstances would display unidirectional vocal recognition. To test this hypothesis, we conducted playback experiments using mother-offspring contact calls. We found that cows were more likely to respond, by moving their ears and/or looking, turning or walking towards the loudspeaker, to calls of their own calves than to calls from other calves. Similarly, calves responded more rapidly, and were more likely to move their ears and/or look, turn or walk towards the loudspeaker, and to call back and/or meet their mothers, in response to calls from their own mothers than to calls from other females. Contrary to our predictions, our results suggest that mother-offspring vocal individual recognition is bidirectional in cattle. Additionally, mothers of younger calves tended to respond more strongly to playbacks than mothers of older calves. Therefore, mother responses to calf vocalizations are at least partially influenced by calf age.
Citation
Padilla de la Torre, M., Briefer, E. F., Ochocki, B. M., McElligott, A. G., & Reader, T. (2016). Mother-offspring recognition via contact calls in cattle, Bos taurus. Animal Behaviour, 114, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2016.02.004
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | Jan 18, 2016 |
Publication Date | Mar 4, 2016 |
Deposit Date | Jul 8, 2016 |
Publicly Available Date | Jul 8, 2016 |
Journal | Animal Behaviour |
Print ISSN | 0003-3472 |
Electronic ISSN | 0003-3472 |
Publisher | Elsevier |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 114 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2016.02.004 |
Keywords | Bidirectional Individual Recognition, Bioacoustics, Free-Ranging Cattle, Playbacks, Vocalizations |
Public URL | https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/781449 |
Publisher URL | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003347216000440 |
Contract Date | Jul 8, 2016 |
Files
Padilla et al- ANBEH-D-15-00825R1complete ms.pdf
(1.3 Mb)
PDF
You might also like
How does viewing angle affect the perceived accuracy of Batesian mimicry in hoverflies?
(2024)
Journal Article
The evolution and ecology of multiple antipredator defences
(2023)
Journal Article
The effect of agri-environment schemes on Bombus terrestris colony success
(2022)
Journal Article
Mapping the evolution of accurate Batesian mimicry of social wasps in hoverflies
(2021)
Journal Article
Downloadable Citations
About Repository@Nottingham
Administrator e-mail: discovery-access-systems@nottingham.ac.uk
This application uses the following open-source libraries:
SheetJS Community Edition
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
PDF.js
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
Font Awesome
SIL OFL 1.1 (http://scripts.sil.org/OFL)
MIT License (http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.html)
CC BY 3.0 ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
Powered by Worktribe © 2025
Advanced Search