(Table 1) Mean statistics for acoustic parameters measured for both brown skua (Catharacta antarctica lonnbergi) sexes

DOI

Bird vocalisations are often essential for sex recognition, especially in species that show little morphological sex dimorphism. Brown skuas (Catharacta antarctica lonnbergi), which exhibit uniform plumage across both sexes, emit three main calls: the long call, the alarm call and the contact call. We tested the potential for sex recognition in brown skua calls of 42 genetically sexed individuals by analysing 8-12 acoustic parameters in the temporal and frequency domains of each call type. For every call type, we failed to find sex differences in any of the acoustic parameters measured. Stepwise discriminant function analysis (DFA) revealed that sexes cannot be unambiguously classified, with increasing uncertainty of correct classification from contact calls to long calls to alarm calls. Consequently, acoustic signalling is probably not the key mechanism for sex recognition in brown skuas.

Note that Catharacta antarctica lonnbergi is more officially called Stercorarius lonnbergi.

Supplement to: Janicke, Tim; Ritz, Markus S; Hahn, Steffen; Peter, Hans-Ulrich (2007): Sex recognition in brown skuas: do acoustic signals matter? Journal of Ornithology, 148(4), 565-569

Identifier
DOI https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.848403
Related Identifier https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-007-0195-4
Metadata Access https://ws.pangaea.de/oai/provider?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=datacite4&identifier=oai:pangaea.de:doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.848403
Provenance
Creator Janicke, Tim ORCID logo; Ritz, Markus S; Hahn, Steffen; Peter, Hans-Ulrich
Publisher PANGAEA
Publication Year 2015
Funding Reference German Research Foundation https://doi.org/10.13039/501100001659 Crossref Funder ID 5472008 https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/5472008 Priority Programme 1158 Antarctic Research with Comparable Investigations in Arctic Sea Ice Areas
Rights Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
OpenAccess true
Representation
Language English
Resource Type Supplementary Dataset; Dataset
Format text/tab-separated-values
Size 136 data points
Discipline Earth System Research
Spatial Coverage (-58.670 LON, -62.250 LAT); Potter Peninsula, King George Island, Western Antarctica