Sounds of black-tailed, white-tailed, and Gunnison's prairie dogs
Date
1966
Authors
Waring, George H., author
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Abstract
The sounds of black-tailed, white-tailed, and Gunnison's prairie dogs were studied in Colorado and Wyoming from February, 1964 to June, 1966. Observations, photographs, and tape recordings were made in the field and were supplemented by data collected from captive prairie dogs. The sounds were tape-recorded on a battery-powered tape recorder at 15 inches per second and analyzed on a sound spectrograph. An unidirectional dynamic microphone was used with the recorder. The sounds of the black-tailed prairie dogs were named and had the usual function as follows: (1) "repetitious barks"--alert; (2) "chuckle"--alert; (3) "chatter barks"--threat; (4) "wee-oo song"--contact; (5) "raspy purr"--pleasure; (6) "snarl"—threat; (7) "scream"--distress; (8) "growl"--threat; and (9) "tooth chatter" --threat. In addition, a grunting sound was occasionally heard. The sounds of the white-tailed prairie dogs were named and had the usual function as follows: (1) "vocal chatter"--alert, (2) "chuckle"—alert; (3) "laughing barks"--contact; (4) "snarl"--threat; (5) "scream"--distress; and (6) "growl"--threat. The sounds of the Gunnison's prairie dogs were named and had the usual function as follows: (1) "repetitious barks" --alert; (2) "rapid barks"--apprehension; (3) "chuckle"--alert; (4) "raspy cbatter"--contact; and (5) "growl"-- threat. In addition, Gunnison's prairie dogs occasionally were heard making snarling, screaming, and tooth chattering sounds. Each species can be identified by certain sounds unique to it, although, in general, all three species emit sounds under similar circumstances. The same sound may have different uses under different ecological conditions. For this reason, all sounds were named for physical rather than functional characteristics. The "chuckle" sounds are regular alerting sounds altered by the burrow system rather than by the prairie dog. Highly alarmed individuals may give more rapid alerting sounds, and during extreme alarm more than one individual may give these vocalizations. Black-tailed prairie dogs usually give their alarm calls for long periods; the other two species group their alarm barks into sets of sounds. The contact call of the black-tailed prairie dog is often repeated immediately by other individuals; the contact call of the other two species is usually repeated after a delay of several seconds. Tail flicking during vocalization occurs only in the black-tailed prairie dog.
Description
Zip file contains supplementary audio file.
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Subject
Sound production by animals
Prairie dogs
Animal sounds