Alarm calls of the European ground squirrel Spermophilus citellus and the Taurus ground squirrel S. taurensis encode information about caller identity
Abstract
Vocalizations of many mammalian species have been reported to encode information about caller identity. In this study, we analyzed 300 alarm calls from 10 free-living European Ground Squirrels Spermophilus citellus (30 per individual) and 300 alarm calls from 10 free-living Taurus Ground Squirrels S. taurensis (30 per individual), and tested the potential of these calls to encode information about the callers' identities.
Discriminant analysis including all 10 European Ground Squirrel individuals correctly classified 98% of calls. For the Taurus Ground Squirrel, correct classification was 95%.
These analyses demonstrate that the structure of alarm calls in these two closely related species is highly variable and that it has significant potential to encode information about caller identity.