Vocalisation in wild-living mountain gazelles (Gazella gazella): structure and context of acoustical signals

Abstract

Abstract Describing vocalisations of species in the wild is an important step to understanding their function. A wild-living population of mountain gazelles (Gazella gazella) was monitored in Israel, using camera traps, thereby providing a first detailed description of the acoustic repertoire. We described six acoustical signals that were either reported by previous authors or that were hitherto not reported. Acoustic signals were categorised according to behavioural context as alarm calls, courtship calls or threat calls and — if possible — characterised by four acoustic variables, i.e., duration, maximum amplitude frequency, three power quartiles and fundamental frequency. Vocalisations were illustrated as spectrograms supplemented by full video sequences to show the acoustical signal in its environmental, social, and behavioural context. Given the rather inconspicuous character of many acoustic signals, we proposed further in-depth studies of vocalisation in mountain gazelles and other Antilopine species to unravel new insights into their behaviour and social organisation.