Singing in the rain! Climate constraints on the occurrence of indri's song

Abstract The study of how animals adapt their behaviors depending on weather variables has gained particular significance in the context of climate change. This exploration offers insights into endangered species' potential threats and provides information on the direction to take in conservati...

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Published in:American journal of primatology 2024-08, Vol.86 (10), p.e23673
Main Authors: Ferrario, Valeria, Raimondi, Teresa, De Gregorio, Chiara, Carugati, Filippo, Cristiano, Walter, Torti, Valeria, Lewis, Rebecca N., Valente, Daria, Williams, Leah J., Raisin, Claire, Gamba, Marco, Von Hardenberg, Achaz, Giacoma, Cristina
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Abstract The study of how animals adapt their behaviors depending on weather variables has gained particular significance in the context of climate change. This exploration offers insights into endangered species' potential threats and provides information on the direction to take in conservation activities. In this context, noninvasive, cost‐effective, and potentially long‐term monitoring systems, such as Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM), become particularly appropriate. Our study investigates the relationship between weather variables and the vocal behavior of Indri indri , the sole singing lemur species, within Madagascar's Maromizaha New Protected Area. Using PAM, we explore the factors shaping the vocalization patterns of this primate species in response to some environmental factors in their natural habitat. Analysis of an extensive audio data set collected across different years revealed the differential influence of temperature and precipitation on Indri indri vocal activity. We found that rainfall negatively influenced the emission of the vocalizations while warmer temperatures correlated with a greater emission of songs. The various environmental factors we considered also affected the timing of vocal emissions, showing the same pattern. Furthermore, our study confirms, once again, the strength of PAM as a valuable tool for studying vocal animal communication quickly, giving us information about long‐term behavioral patterns that would be difficult to get in other ways. This research gives us further valuable information about how indris use vocalizations in their environment and how they adjust to environmental changes. Research highlights Indri indri , the only singing lemur, emits songs daily, a behavior strictly linked to intergroup territory spacing. We explored the influence of weather conditions on indris' songs in the Maromizaha New Protected Area using Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM) and an automated detection algorithm. Indris adjusted their singing behavior based on weather conditions: rain and low temperatures are associated with decreased frequency. Rain determined delayed song emission in the morning. This suggests this behavior's plasticity is linked to energetic costs. Our study widens the knowledge of the behavior of an endangered species of nonhuman primates. It also showcases the strength of PAM in the conservation and behavioral study of different species.
ISSN:0275-2565
1098-2345
1098-2345
DOI:10.1002/ajp.23673