Refining acoustic unit classification of the Hylobates lar vocal repertoire — Presentation Detail — Celebration of Scholars

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Additional Information

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Jun Wang
Kim Instenes
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Nora Nickels
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James Ripley

Refining acoustic unit classification of the Hylobates lar vocal repertoire

Name: Caitlin McCombe
Major: Biology
Hometown: Cedarburg
Faculty Sponsor: Angela Dassow
Other Sponsors:
Type of research: Independent research
Funding: University of St Andrews, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Carthage College

Abstract

White-handed gibbons (Hylobates lar) live in densely vegetated rainforests that require long-distance acoustic calls for communication. The necessity for an acoustic form of communication has resulted in the evolution of a complex vocal repertoire. This study utilizes recordings of white-handed gibbons located in the Khao Yai National Park, Thailand. H. lar repertoire was previously defined using 28 types of acoustic units. One of these units, /s/, has shown large variability and thus hypothesized to require further division into multiple subunits. The parameters of maximum frequency, minimum frequency, start frequency, end frequency, dominant frequency, bandwidth, and call duration were used to redefine acoustic categories. Independent analyses using the Calinksi-Harabanz, Davies-Bouldin, and Silhouette algorithms established that /s/ should be subdivided into two units (/s1/ and /s2/). A dendrogram was used to allocate the /s/ files into one of the two newly defined subcategories. Future work could examine the behavioral context behind differences in /s/ units.