Guinea pigs' purr: an identity or quality call?

• Grant number: 21/04534-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: August 01, 2021
• End date: July 31, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Experimental Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Patrícia Ferreira Monticelli
• Grantee: Letícia Guerreiro Pinheiro
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (FFCLRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Clues or information about identity and quality sent to individuals of the opposite sex during the courtship can define the reproductive success of the sender. Through sound communication, for example, information about the sender is transported in one or more acoustic parameters, such as frequency, duration, and intensity. Thus, signals that communicate different information have different properties: identity signals, for example, are characterized by stability over time and the potential to serve as a vocal signature system for individual discrimination. In guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus), the courtship call, purr, is uttered by males during the sexual display of the species, indicating the animal's excitation. Although individual differences in performance and call structure were found between males, there was no evidence of a relationship to the individual's dominance status. These results lead to the hypothesis that this call only encodes the sender's identity. Thus, the hypothesis will be verified by comparing the courtship call at two different moments in the males' lives (6 months and three years) to assess whether the acoustic features are maintained over time. We predict that the acoustic structure of the purr will remain constant over time, reflecting the identity of the sender, and that the vocal performance will change, revealing differences in the conditions (quality) of the individuals in the long term. (AU)