Mother-offspring recognition via contact calls in cattle, Bos taurus.
Individual recognition in gregarious species is fundamental in order to avoid misdirected parental investment. In ungulates, two very different parental care strategies have been identified: ‘hider’ offspring usually lie concealed in vegetation whereas offspring of ‘follower’ species remain with the...
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| Format: | Article |
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Elsevier Masson
2016
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/34713/ |
| _version_ | 1848794918533726208 |
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| author | Padilla de la Torre, Monica Briefer, Elodie F. Ochocki, Brad M. McElligott, Alan G. Reader, Tom |
| author_facet | Padilla de la Torre, Monica Briefer, Elodie F. Ochocki, Brad M. McElligott, Alan G. Reader, Tom |
| author_sort | Padilla de la Torre, Monica |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Individual recognition in gregarious species is fundamental in order to avoid misdirected parental investment. In ungulates, two very different parental care strategies have been identified: ‘hider’ offspring usually lie concealed in vegetation whereas offspring of ‘follower’ species remain with their mothers while they forage. These two strategies have been suggested to impact on mother-offspring vocal recognition, with unidirectional recognition of the mother by offspring occurring in hiders and bidirectional recognition in followers. In domestic cattle, Bos taurus, a facultative hider species, vocal communication and recognition have not been studied in detail under free-ranging conditions, where cows and calves can graze freely and where hiding behaviour can occur. We hypothesized that, as a hider species, cattle under these circumstances would display unidirectional vocal recognition. To test this hypothesis, we conducted playback experiments using mother-offspring contact calls. We found that cows were more likely to respond, by moving their ears and/or looking, turning or walking towards the loudspeaker, to calls of their own calves than to calls from other calves. Similarly, calves responded more rapidly, and were more likely to move their ears and/or look, turn or walk towards the loudspeaker, and to call back and/or meet their mothers, in response to calls from their own mothers than to calls from other females. Contrary to our predictions, our results suggest that mother-offspring vocal individual recognition is bidirectional in cattle. Additionally, mothers of younger calves tended to respond more strongly to playbacks than mothers of older calves. Therefore, mother responses to calf vocalizations are at least partially influenced by calf age. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:23:50Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-34713 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:23:50Z |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| publisher | Elsevier Masson |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-347132020-05-04T17:42:53Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/34713/ Mother-offspring recognition via contact calls in cattle, Bos taurus. Padilla de la Torre, Monica Briefer, Elodie F. Ochocki, Brad M. McElligott, Alan G. Reader, Tom Individual recognition in gregarious species is fundamental in order to avoid misdirected parental investment. In ungulates, two very different parental care strategies have been identified: ‘hider’ offspring usually lie concealed in vegetation whereas offspring of ‘follower’ species remain with their mothers while they forage. These two strategies have been suggested to impact on mother-offspring vocal recognition, with unidirectional recognition of the mother by offspring occurring in hiders and bidirectional recognition in followers. In domestic cattle, Bos taurus, a facultative hider species, vocal communication and recognition have not been studied in detail under free-ranging conditions, where cows and calves can graze freely and where hiding behaviour can occur. We hypothesized that, as a hider species, cattle under these circumstances would display unidirectional vocal recognition. To test this hypothesis, we conducted playback experiments using mother-offspring contact calls. We found that cows were more likely to respond, by moving their ears and/or looking, turning or walking towards the loudspeaker, to calls of their own calves than to calls from other calves. Similarly, calves responded more rapidly, and were more likely to move their ears and/or look, turn or walk towards the loudspeaker, and to call back and/or meet their mothers, in response to calls from their own mothers than to calls from other females. Contrary to our predictions, our results suggest that mother-offspring vocal individual recognition is bidirectional in cattle. Additionally, mothers of younger calves tended to respond more strongly to playbacks than mothers of older calves. Therefore, mother responses to calf vocalizations are at least partially influenced by calf age. Elsevier Masson 2016-03-04 Article PeerReviewed Padilla de la Torre, Monica, Briefer, Elodie F., Ochocki, Brad M., McElligott, Alan G. and Reader, Tom (2016) Mother-offspring recognition via contact calls in cattle, Bos taurus. Animal Behaviour, 114 . pp. 147-154. ISSN 0003-3472 Bidirectional Individual Recognition Bioacoustics Free-Ranging Cattle Playbacks Vocalizations http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003347216000440 doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2016.02.004 doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2016.02.004 |
| spellingShingle | Bidirectional Individual Recognition Bioacoustics Free-Ranging Cattle Playbacks Vocalizations Padilla de la Torre, Monica Briefer, Elodie F. Ochocki, Brad M. McElligott, Alan G. Reader, Tom Mother-offspring recognition via contact calls in cattle, Bos taurus. |
| title | Mother-offspring recognition via contact calls in cattle, Bos taurus. |
| title_full | Mother-offspring recognition via contact calls in cattle, Bos taurus. |
| title_fullStr | Mother-offspring recognition via contact calls in cattle, Bos taurus. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Mother-offspring recognition via contact calls in cattle, Bos taurus. |
| title_short | Mother-offspring recognition via contact calls in cattle, Bos taurus. |
| title_sort | mother-offspring recognition via contact calls in cattle, bos taurus. |
| topic | Bidirectional Individual Recognition Bioacoustics Free-Ranging Cattle Playbacks Vocalizations |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/34713/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/34713/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/34713/ |