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| Peters, G. | |
| Dominant frequency of loud mew calls of felids (Mammalia: Carnivora) decreases during ontogenetic growth | |
| 2011 Mammal Review (41): 54-74 | |
1. A negative correlation between body weight and frequency characteristics of a species' vocalizations exists in mammals, due to the acoustics of vocal sound production ('source-filter theory'; source = larynx; filter = supralaryngeal vocal tract) and the strong positive correlation between body weight and vocal tract length. 2. A negative correlation is hypothesized to exist between increasing body weight and frequency characteristics of calls during ontogeny as well. 3. This hypothesis is tested for mean dominant frequency (maximum spectral energy peak) of intense mew calls in juveniles of five species of the Felidae: lion _Panthera leo_, jaguar _Panthera onca_, leopard _Panthera pardus_, tiger _Panthera tigris _and puma _Puma concolor_. 4. In the five felid species in which the hyoid is incompletely ossified (genera _Panthera _and _Uncia_), the larynx undergoes a considerable ontogenetic descent, resulting in a proportionally longer vocal tract in adult individuals than in all other species of the family, which have a fully ossified hyoid without a descent. 5. In all five species studied here, mean dominant frequency decreases as body weight increases during growth. In the four _Panthera _species (with laryngeal descent) dominant frequency is determined by the vocal tract (the filter), and dominant frequency is largely similar at similar weights, indicating a similar correlation between the ontogenetic increase in body weight (and vocal tract length) and the decrease in mean dominant frequency. In the puma (without laryngeal descent) dominant frequency is determined by the larynx (the source), it is considerably higher than in the _Panthera _species, and the course of its ontogenetic decrease differs considerably from that in _Panthera_. 6. The data do not support a uniform scaling relationship between body weight and mean dominant frequency of intense mew calls in the Felidae during ontogenetic growth. |
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