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Acoustic interactions between free-living mother–calf Antillean manatees, Trichechus manatus manatus

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Abstract

Acoustic signalling plays a crucial role in mother–calf communication. Here, we describe the acoustic signalling of three free-living Antillean manatee mother and calf pairs and one trio. The mother–calf pairs/trio produced six call types. The call rate varied between the pairs. The pair that experienced human interaction during the recording period had the highest call rate. Additionally, the Squeak vocalisations produced by each mother–calf pair differed structurally. Our results indicate that age and human interaction may affect call rate and suggest the potential production of signature vocalisations by manatee mothers and calves. Our findings add to the current knowledge of manatee acoustic communication.

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Data availability

The datasets generated and analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the staff at the Fundação de Mamíferos Aquáticos, the Área de Proteção Ambiental Costa dos Corais/ICMBio and the Área de Proteção Ambiental da Barra do Rio Mamanguape/ICMBio. We thank Luana Guimarães for her assistance in the field. This study complied with Brazilian law and was conducted under the SISBIO licence number 45424-3 (ICMBio). The authors also thank the Long Live the Manatee Project conducted by the Aquatic Mammal Foundation and sponsored by Petrobras through the Petrobras Socio-environmental Program, and the National Program for the Conservation of the Antillean Manatee developed by the Aquatic Mammal Foundation and sponsored by the Boticário Foundation.

Funding

Rebecca Umeed was funded by a PhD scholarship from the Coordination of Superior Level Staff Improvement – CAPES scholarship (Grant Code 001). Karen Lucchini was funded through an MSc scholarship from the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development scholarship – CNPq (131102/2019-2). Bruna Bezerra and the research were supported by a Produtividade and Qualis A grant (2018 calls) from the Pro-Reitoria de Pesquisa da Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, a CNPq productivity grant (309256/2019-4), and FACEPE BFT grants (BFT-01602.04/17; BFT-0014-2.05/20). Paulo J.P Santos was supported by a CNPq productivity grant (309592/2018-6).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biologia Animal, Departamento de Zoologia, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil

    Rebecca Umeed, Karen Lucchini, Paula Djanira Fernandes Coutinho, Paulo Jorge Parreira dos Santos & Bruna Bezerra

  2. Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade/Centro Nacional de Pesquisa e Conservação da Biodiversidade de Mamíferos Aquáticos (ICMBio/CMA), Santos, São Paulo, Brazil

    Karen Lucchini, Fernanda Löffler Niemer Attademo & Fabia Luna

  3. Fundação de Mamíferos Aquáticos, Barra de Mamanguape, Paraíba, Brazil

    João Carlos Gomes Borges

  4. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia e Monitoramento Ambiental – PPGEMA, Universidade Federal da Paraíba – UFPB, João Pessoa, Brazil

    João Carlos Gomes Borges

  5. Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade/Reserva Extrativista Marinha da Lagoa do Jequiá, Jequiá da Praia, Alagoas, Brazil

    Iran Normade

  6. Universidade Federal de Alagoas, Programa de Pós-graduação em Diversidade Biológica e Conservação nos Trópicos, Laboratório de Biologia Marinha e Conservação e Laboratório de Conservação no Século XXI,, Maceió, Alagoas, Brazil

    Iran Normade

Authors
  1. Rebecca Umeed
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  2. Karen Lucchini
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  3. Paula Djanira Fernandes Coutinho
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  4. Paulo Jorge Parreira dos Santos
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  5. João Carlos Gomes Borges
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  6. Iran Normade
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  7. Fernanda Löffler Niemer Attademo
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  8. Fabia Luna
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  9. Bruna Bezerra
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Contributions

Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by RU. The first draft of the manuscript was written RU, BB and PJPS and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rebecca Umeed.

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Conflict of interest

The authors have no conflict of interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.

Ethical approval

This study complied with Brazilian law and was conducted under the SISBIO license number 45424-3 (ICMBio).

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Umeed, R., Lucchini, K., Coutinho, P. et al. Acoustic interactions between free-living mother–calf Antillean manatees, Trichechus manatus manatus. J Ethol 41, 243–251 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10164-023-00788-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10164-023-00788-z

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