title: Potential Sources of High Frequency and Biphonic Vocalization in the Dhole (Cuon alpinus).
abstract: Biphonation, i.e. two independent fundamental frequencies in a call spectrum, is a prominent feature of vocal activity in dog-like canids. Dog-like canids can produce a low (f0) and a high (g0) fundamental frequency simultaneously. In contrast, fox-like canids are only capable of producing the low fundamental frequency (f0). Using a comparative anatomical approach for revealing macroscopic structures potentially responsible for canid biphonation, we investigated the vocal anatomy for 4 (1 male, 3 female) captive dholes (Cuon alpinus) and for 2 (1 male, 1 female) wild red fox (Vulpes vulpes). In addition, we analyzed the acoustic structure of vocalizations in the same dholes that served postmortem as specimens for the anatomical investigation. All study dholes produced both high-frequency and biphonic calls. The anatomical reconstructions revealed that the vocal morphologies of the dhole are very similar to those of the red fox. These results suggest that the high-frequency and biphonic calls in dog-like canids can be produced without specific anatomical adaptations of the sound-producing structures. We discuss possible production modes for the high-frequency and biphonic calls involving laryngeal and nasal structures.
authors.affiliation: Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW), Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Roland
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Frey
authors.affiliation: Department of Vertebrate Zoology, Faculty of Biology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia.|Scientific Research Department, Moscow Zoo, Moscow, Russia.
authors.forename: Ilya A
authors.initials: IA
authors.lastname: Volodin
authors.affiliation: Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW), Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Guido
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fritsch
authors.affiliation: Scientific Research Department, Moscow Zoo, Moscow, Russia.
authors.forename: Elena V
authors.initials: EV
authors.lastname: Volodina
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D046028:Canidae / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D004285:Dogs; D005589:Foxes; D007821:Laryngeal Muscles / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology; D010699:Phonation / Q000502:physiology*; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D013045:Species Specificity; D014827:Vocal Cords / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D014828:Vocalization, Animal / Q000502:physiology*