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Within and between species approaches to the study of communication and cognition in parrots

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2023

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Animals vary widely in how much they communicate. A lot of empirical effort has been invested in understanding human language evolution, with primates and song birds as main model species. However, these two taxa each lack crucial components of the human communication system: primates have very limited vocal learning capabilities and song birds have mainly been studied with focus on territorial song rather than the wide variety in which humans use vocal communication. This thesis aims to help fill this gap by studying parrots, which are life-long vocal learners and use learned calls in many situations other than territorial song. As model system I use a well-studied species, the monk parakeet (\textit{Myiopsitta monachus}), which uses vocal communication in a complex social system where multiple pairs breed in colonial nesting structures and individuals forage in fission-fusion flocks.

I first explore how these parakeets can maintain a vocal identity despite their flexibility in vocal production. I show the presence of a vocal signal in multiple call types and a voice-print across call types similar to the one found in humans. I also show a surprising diversity of contact call variants, suggesting a flexible, context-dependent use of this call type. In the second chapter I explore this diversity further and test which social and life history factors can explain it, using a social network approach to measure a range of social associations and interactions. I first map out the social network and ask if this predicts the similarity of contact calls, consistent with a social influence on call characteristics. I also test the effect of social and life history factors on the overall repertoire diversity. Supporting the results from my first chapter, I find that most individuals have very diverse contact calls, but that contact call diversity might increase with age and with number of the nest mates. Contact call similarity was only predicted by the the tolerance network, where individuals sounded less similar to conspecifics that they tolerated foraging very close by. Finally, when expanding the analysis to include all 11 call types, I found that individuals living in larger nesting trees, as well as females, had a more diverse repertoire. In a third study of monk parakeets I zoomed out and tested if differences exist in contact calls between multiple disconnected European populations. I show the presence of dialects in cities but not in parks within cities. These results are most consistent with passive mechanisms for dialect formation, suggesting either a strong cultural founder effect or drift. Altogether, these studies examine vocal communication in monk parakeets at multiple levels, helping to reveal the mechanisms that can lead to individual distinctiveness and social similarity in calls.

Finally, parrots are not only a good model system to test the link between social structure and vocal behaviour, but also exhibit striking encephalisation and longevity. However, the evolutionary drivers of these are not well understood, including whether they might be linked, as is considered the case in human evolution. One reason for this is that sourcing good data and estimating reliable averages has been a major challenge in the past. In chapter 5 and 6, I present estimates of life expectancy in parrots and a method to calculate relative brain size in a comparative setting. I then use these to show a direct effect of relative brain size on life expectancy across parrots. These results best support the cognitive buffer hypothesis, that selection for brain size has lead to an increase in life expectancy.

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ISO 690SMEELE, Simeon Q., 2023. Within and between species approaches to the study of communication and cognition in parrots [Dissertation]. Konstanz: University of Konstanz
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@phdthesis{Smeele2023Withi-68455,
  year={2023},
  title={Within and between species approaches to the study of communication and cognition in parrots},
  author={Smeele, Simeon Q.},
  address={Konstanz},
  school={Universität Konstanz}
}
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I first explore how these parakeets can maintain a vocal identity despite their flexibility in vocal production. I show the presence of a vocal signal in multiple call types and a voice-print across call types similar to the one found in humans. I also show a surprising diversity of contact call variants, suggesting a flexible, context-dependent use of this call type. In the second chapter I explore this diversity further and test which social and life history factors can explain it, using a social network approach to measure a range of social associations and interactions. I first map out the social network and ask if this predicts the similarity of contact calls, consistent with a social influence on call characteristics. I also test the effect of social and life history factors on the overall repertoire diversity. Supporting the results from my first chapter, I find that most individuals have very diverse contact calls, but that contact call diversity might increase with age and with number of the nest mates. Contact call similarity was only predicted by the the tolerance network, where individuals sounded less similar to conspecifics that they tolerated foraging very close by. Finally, when expanding the analysis to include all 11 call types, I found that individuals living in larger nesting trees, as well as females, had a more diverse repertoire. In a third study of monk parakeets I zoomed out and tested if differences exist in contact calls between multiple disconnected European populations. I show the presence of dialects in cities but not in parks within cities. These results are most consistent with passive mechanisms for dialect formation, suggesting either a strong cultural founder effect or drift. Altogether, these studies examine vocal communication in monk parakeets at multiple levels, helping to reveal the  mechanisms that can lead to individual distinctiveness and social similarity in calls. 

Finally, parrots are not only a good model system to test the link between social structure and vocal behaviour, but also exhibit striking encephalisation and longevity. However, the evolutionary drivers of these are not well understood, including whether they might be linked, as is considered the case in human evolution. One reason for this is that sourcing good data and estimating reliable averages has been a major challenge in the past. In chapter 5 and 6, I present estimates of life expectancy in parrots and a method to calculate relative brain size in a comparative setting. I then use these to show a direct effect of relative brain size on life expectancy across parrots. These results best support the cognitive buffer hypothesis, that selection for brain size has lead to an increase in life expectancy.</dcterms:abstract>
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October 16, 2023
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Konstanz, Univ., Diss., 2023
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