Whistles beat trills in closed habitats while trills beat whistles in open ones
Evidence
Simulations conducted by Brown and Handford (1996) have confirmed the acoustic adaptation hypothesis. They constructed two different types of “source signals,” rapid amplitude modulation (AM) (trills) for open habitats and low AM (whistles) in close habitats.
The degradation of such signals was performed artificially by various echo treatments or by various amplitude decrease treatments. The results are consistent with the AAH because in closest habitats whistled signals transmit with better quality than trilled signals. In open habitats trilled signals are transmitted with a lower variability of quality than whistled signals and for their redundancy are transmitted with more efficiency.
— Almo Farina, Soundscape Ecology, 425
Categorization
- recurring: this claim recurs 2 times within its source
- XREF: connects to: Animal long-distance calls evolve to match habitat acoustics — Almo Farina, Soundscape Ecology: Principles,…, 409; Reverberation favors low-frequency slow trills over fast high-frequency ones for long-range communication — Almo Farina, Soundscape Ecology: Principles,…, 443
Broader Connections
- Animal long-distance calls evolve to match habitat acoustics
#expands(0.85) — Almo Farina, Soundscape Ecology, 409 - Reverberation favors low-frequency slow trills over fast high-frequency ones for long-range communication
#qualifies(0.80) — Almo Farina, Soundscape Ecology, 443