The ontogeny of acoustic individuality in the nasal calls of captive goitred gazelles, Gazella subgutturosa

Individualistic voices are important for establishing personalized relationships among individuals. In young animals, individual vocal identity is affected by permanent changes of the acoustics due to the growth of their vocal apparatus. Different acoustic variables change uncoordinatedly, so vocal individuality should be repeatedly upgraded along development. We compared classifying accuracy of individuals and sexes by nasal calls in fast-growing goitred gazelles Gazella subgutturosa at two ontogenetic stages, juvenile (3-6 weeks of age) and adolescent (23-26 weeks of age). Juvenile spring nasal calls and adolescent fall nasal calls were examined in the same 35 calves (18 males, 17 females), wild-born in May and then hand-raised. Discriminate function analysis based on four formants, fundamental frequency, duration and three power quartiles, revealed an equally high potential of spring and fall calls to encode sex. The individuality was very high in both ages but significantly higher in fall calls. Classifying calls to individuals was based on the same three acoustic variables (fundamental frequency and third and fourth formants) in both ages, although their actual values changed uncoordinatedly from spring to fall in most subjects. Our results suggest updating acoustic individuality in nasal calls of adolescent goitred gazelles accordingly to the newly emerged acoustic variation. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.