Mating and Separation Wolf Howls
1.1 هزار بار بازدید -
7 ماه پیش
-
On January 5th at about
On January 5th at about 9am, three wolves howled at one another. One wolf, 1339M a young male from the Junction Butte pack was alone howling just south of the road in Lamar Valley in Yellowstone National Park. Two other wolves were howling back towards him just north of the road from an elevated hillside and separated from him by people and cars on the road. One of those wolves was 1090F, the matriarch of the Mollie's pack. At 9 and 1/2 years old, she is the second oldest wolf in Yellowstone today. With her was an uncollared male, also howling, but mostly staying out of sight. Eventually, 1090F would cross the road and head towards 1339M where they would eventually meet up and display tail wagging and play behavior reminiscent of ritualized courtship when potential mates have initial interactions just prior to the breeding season. United, both wolves would howl towards the uncollared grey which remained on the other side of the road, reluctant to cross with people and cars in the way. 1090F would partly return to the road, presumably trying to encourage the uncollared grey to come join her and 1339M.
Spectrograms, which are a way of visualizing the pitch, duration and loudness of sounds, reveal the unique howls of each wolf. 1339M had a distinctive low pitched flat howl but used a few variations. 1090F had a relatively low pitched howl that was consistent in style throughout the interaction. The uncollared grey had a distinctive higher pitched howl and also varied it in several ways. Eugene Morton's work is suggestive here, in that higher pitched, modulated howls might be indicating an aroused nervous behavior, whereas the lower pitched unmodulated pitches of 1339M and 1090F were communicated in a friendly breeding context.
You can hear several of these howls in the following video which recounts their interaction. The Cry Wolf project is a bioacoustics study in the Greater Yellowstone which is trying to better understand the nature and meanings of different wolf vocalizations. You can learn more about this study at www.fivetoedwolf.com
Spectrograms, which are a way of visualizing the pitch, duration and loudness of sounds, reveal the unique howls of each wolf. 1339M had a distinctive low pitched flat howl but used a few variations. 1090F had a relatively low pitched howl that was consistent in style throughout the interaction. The uncollared grey had a distinctive higher pitched howl and also varied it in several ways. Eugene Morton's work is suggestive here, in that higher pitched, modulated howls might be indicating an aroused nervous behavior, whereas the lower pitched unmodulated pitches of 1339M and 1090F were communicated in a friendly breeding context.
You can hear several of these howls in the following video which recounts their interaction. The Cry Wolf project is a bioacoustics study in the Greater Yellowstone which is trying to better understand the nature and meanings of different wolf vocalizations. You can learn more about this study at www.fivetoedwolf.com
7 ماه پیش
در تاریخ 1402/10/24 منتشر شده
است.
1,128
بـار بازدید شده