Vocal repertoire of the New Zealand kea parrot Nestor notabilis

作     者：Raoul SCHWING Stuart PARSONS Ximena J. NELSON 

作者机构：School of Biological Sciences University of Auckland Private Bag 92019 Auckland New Zealand School of Biological Sciences University of Canterbury Private Bag 4800 Christchurch New Zealand 

出 版 物：《Current Zoology》 (动物学报（英文版）)

年 卷 期：2012年第58卷第5期

页      面：727-740页

核心收录：

学科分类：0710[理学-生物学] 0810[工学-信息与通信工程] 07[理学] 08[工学] 081002[工学-信号与信息处理] 071002[理学-动物学] 

基　　金：TheBrianMasonScientificandTechnicalTrust(XJN)andbyaUniver-sityofAucklandDoctoralScholarship(RS) 

主　　题：Acoustic signals Communication Kea Psittacidae Social behaviour Habitat 

摘      要：The unique alpine-living kea parrot Nestor notabilis has been the focus of numerous cognitive studies, but its com- munication system has so far been largely neglected. We examined 2,884 calls recorded in New Zealand＇s Southern Alps. Based on audio and visual spectrographic differences, these calls were categorised into seven distinct call types： the non-oscillating ＇screech＇ contact call and ＇mew＇; and the oscillating ＇trill＇, ＇chatter＇, ＇warble＇ and ＇whistle＇; and a hybrid ＇screech-trill＇. Most of these calls contained aspects that were individually unique, in addition to potentially encoding for an individual＇s sex and age. Additionally, for each recording, the sender＇s previous and next calls were noted, as well as any response given by conspecifics. We found that the previous and next calls made by the sender were most often of the same type, and that the next most likely pre- ceding and/or following call type was the screech call, a contact call which sounds like the ＇kee-ah＇ from which the bird＇s name derives. As a social bird capable of covering large distances over visually obstructive terrain, long distance contact calls may be of considerable importance for social cohesion. Contact calls allow kea to locate conspecifics and congregate in temporary groups for social activities. The most likely response to any given call was a screech, usually followed by the same type of call as the ini- tial call made by the sender, although responses differed depending on the age of the caller. The exception was the warble, the kea＇s play call, to which the most likely response was another warble. Being the most common call type, as well as the default response to another call, it appears that the ＇contagious＇ screech contact call plays a central role in kea vocal communication and social cohesion [Current Zoology 58 （5）： 727-740, 2012].