Duet (zoology)

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Spectrogram of the duet singing in a pair of white-browed cuckoos

Different animals can sing in a duet , whereby mostly a male and a female stimulate each other and alternately sing or call. Dueting is mainly known from birds and gibbons , but was used e.g. B. also described in various other monkeys, antelopes, frogs and even in crickets.

Right: A male white- browed cuckoo ( Centropus superciliosus ) singing in the typical posture. Left: a series of pictures with a couple singing a duet. From above, 1: right before the song; 2: male (right) begins to sing; 3: female (left) starts singing; 4: The male finishes singing. Photos from an article by Brumm and Goymann.

Duet with birds

Duet chants are known in at least 360 species of birds from 18 families of songbirds and 32 other families. It is obvious that dueting has developed independently several times. On the other hand, the ability to duet has also developed within individual bird families, e.g. B. in bearded birds , variously lost again. It has been reported on various occasions that dueting is particularly common among birds in the tropics; it is more likely to be related to the fact that birds of the tropics do not migrate (bird migration), i.e. remain permanently in the same territory. Most types of duet are monogamous.

The biological effectiveness of dueting depends in particular on the fact that the individual chants of the partners fit together exactly and thus prove their coordination. Birds that duet go through a kind of “engagement period” as couples. During this, they learn the partner's vocal repertoire and build up a pair-specific duet singing that binds the couple together. In many species, the duet song should serve to defend a common territory. Sometimes different functions such as reproductive synchronization or checking the partnership relationship of dueting are to be assumed.

Weeping drongo, a species of bird that sings very complicated duets

A particularly complexly structured duet can be found, for example, in mourning drongos ( Dicrurus adsimilis ), in which each partner has an individual repertoire of over 30 sounds, which he sings in succession with short pauses. In between there is a sound from the other bird, so that the sounds follow one another like the teeth of a zipper. The repertoire of each bird contains different thematic groups. If one of the two begins a different topic, the other immediately joins the corresponding group of sounds.

In a similar way to duet singing, couples can also have a couple-specific bond through reciprocal sequences of movements. These sequences of movements are similar to courtship behavior, but are important for the cohesion of the partners. Such mutual rituals (outside of the breeding season) are particularly striking, for example in the Galapagos albatross ( Phoebastria irrorata ). The same applies to the dueling of the storks with the clatter of bills .

Duet with gibbons

Siamang with a characteristic large throat pouch

Most types of gibbons can sing in a duet. This ability is a common, original characteristic that has only been lost in Hylobates moloch and H. klossii : in these two species, the males or females sing only individually.

The Siamang ( Symphalangus syndactylus ) sings particularly complex duets . The males and females each sing different verses and coordinate their singing according to fixed rules. In addition, solo chants by the males are known for most species. While the solo chants presumably serve primarily to defend resources (territory, food sources, partners), the duet chants are likely to have different functions. The duet chants mostly take place in the early morning hours, but sometimes at different times for different types.

The chants of the gibbons are considered a model for the evolution of human music. Both old-world primates and gibbons have so-called “loud calls” from males, which are very similar. Parallels between the chants of gibbons and human beings reveal the original functions of human song and music.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Henrik Brumm, Wolfgang Goymann: On the natural history of duetting in White-browed Coucals: sex-and body-size-dependent differences in a collective vocal display . In: Journal of Ornithology . tape 158 , no. 3 , July 2017, p. 669-678 , doi : 10.1007 / s10336-016-1429-0 .
  2. ↑ Richard R. Tenaza, Ronald L. Tilson: Monogamy and Dütting in an Old World monkey . In: Nature . tape 263 , no. 5575 , September 1976, ISSN  1476-4687 , pp. 320-321 , doi : 10.1038 / 263320a0 .
  3. ↑ Alexandra E. Müller, Gustl Anzenberger: Duetting in the Titti Monkey Callicebus cupreus: Structure, Pair Specifity and Development of Duets . In: Folia Primatol . tape 73 , 2002, pp. 104-115 , doi : 10.1159 / 000064788 .
  4. ↑ Ronald L. Tilson: Dütting in Namib desert klipspringers . In: South African Journal of Science . tape 73 , 1977, pp. 314-315 ( the-eis.com [PDF]).
  5. ↑ Darcy B. Kelley, Sandya S. Viswanathan, Martha L. Tobias: Rapping, a female receptive call, initiates male-female duets in the South African clawed frog . In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . tape 95 , no. 4 , February 17, 1998, ISSN  0027-8424 , p. 1870-1875 , doi : 10.1073 / pnas.95.4.1870 , PMID 9465109 .
  6. ↑ Andreas Stumpner, Sabine Meyer: Songs and the Function of Song Elements in Four Dütting Bush Cricket Species (Ensifera, Phaneropteridae, Barbitistes) . In: Journal of Insect Behavior . tape 14 , no. 4 , July 1, 2001, ISSN  1572-8889 , p. 511-534 , doi : 10.1023 / A: 1011176106943 .
  7. ↑ a b Michelle L. Hall: Chapter 3: A Review of Vocal Duetting in Birds . In: Advances in the Study of Behavior . tape 40 . Elsevier, 2009, ISBN 978-0-12-374475-3 , pp. 67-121 , doi : 10.1016 / s0065-3454 (09) 40003-2 .
  8. ↑ a b c d Wolfgang Wickler: Science on Safari. Behavioral research as a profession and hobby . Springer Berlin Heidelberg, Berlin, Heidelberg 2017, ISBN 978-3-662-49958-0 , pp. 147 f., 187 ff .
  9. ^ WH Thorpe: The biological significance of duetting and antiphonal song . In: Acta Neurobiol. Exp. Band 35 , 1975, pp. 517-528 .
  10. ↑ David M. Logue, Michelle L. Hall: Migration and the evolution of duetting in songbirds . In: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences . tape 281 , no. 1782 , May 2014, doi : 10.1098 / rspb.2014.0103 .
  11. ^ A b Christine R. Dahlin, Lauryn Benedict: Angry Birds Need Not Apply: A Perspective on the Flexible Form and Multifunctionality of Avian Vocal Duets . In: Ethology . tape 120 , no. 1 , 2014, ISSN  1439-0310 , p. 1-10 , doi : 10.1111 / eth.12182 .
  12. ↑ Kristin A. Kovach, Michelle L. Hall, Sandra L. Vehrencamp, Daniel J. Mennill: Timing isn't everything: responses of tropical wrens to coordinated duets, uncoordinated duets and alternating solos . In: Animal Behavior . Volume 95, September 2014, pp. 101-109, doi : 10.1016 / j.anbehav.2014.06.012 .
  13. ↑ Dagmar von Helversen, Wolfgang Wickler: About the duet song of the African drongo Dicrurus adsimilis Bechstein . In: Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie . tape 29 , no. 3 , 1971, ISSN  1439-0310 , pp. 301-321 , doi : 10.1111 / j.1439-0310.1971.tb01739.x .
  14. ↑ Lecture: Duetting with birds and monkeys | Zoological State Collection Munich. Retrieved February 5, 2019 .
  15. ↑ Thomas Geissmann: Duet-splitting and the evolution of Gibbon songs . In: Biological Reviews . tape 77 , no. 1 , February 2002, p. 57-76 , doi : 10.1017 / S1464793101005826 .
  16. ^ A b Thomas Geissmann: Gibbons - the singing apes: booklet accompanying the exhibition . Anthropological Institute and Museum of the University of Zurich, 2014, ISBN 978-3-03304475-3 .
  17. ↑ Thomas Geissmann: Gibbons the singing apes . In: World of Animals . tape 2 , 2016, p. 50-51 , doi : 10.5167 / uzh-129293 .
  18. ↑ Tiergarten Lecture: Gibbons and the Evolution of Music. Retrieved February 7, 2019 .