Potential for individual recognition in acoustic signals: A comparative study of two gulls with different nesting patterns

Abstract

We test relationship between structure of acoustic signal used for individual recognition and nesting ecology among two gulls: the black-headed gull (Larus ridibundus), in which chicks remain in the nest, and the slender-billed gull (L. genei), in which chicks leave the nest after hatching to form crèches. A striking difference between both species is the presence of two fundamental frequencies in the slender-billed gull's call and only one in the black-headed gull's call. Our study show that the potential for individually coding is more important in the species where the offspring experiment the greatest constraints - due to their nesting pattern - to identify their parents. © 2003 Académie des sciences/Éditions scientifiques et médicales Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.