I have been reading many publications on the individual acoustic patterns identifiable in animal vocalizations in many species.
Namely, that animals can produce individualized acoustic patterns that can be used to distinguish them among conspecifics and these patterns (individual voice) are used to tell apart, e.g., group members from non-group members or specific group members from all group members etc.
However, I was wondering if individualized acoustic patterns were ever produced in any species when they were calling to / communicating with a particular individual in their group.
That is to say, whether the communicative signal used by an animal changes in its acoustic patterns with respect to the individual that the animal is addressing.
Many social situations in animals do not really… call for individualization of an invitation or an alarm, or a request, appeal etc.
Some of these vocalizations might be generalized (e.g., apologizing, asking for food) or collective (e.g., howling to rally wolves to patrol or to hunt, or to gather for other purposes).
However, in tightly knit social groups the need or inclination might also arise to address specific group members and it would be interesting to analyze the calls that are directed at specific individuals in the group and to determine whether these calls are somehow personalized.
Those might not be ‘names’ as such.
By a ‘name’ we understand a sound that is made initiating communication with a particular individual but such ‘opening’ lines might have scarcer opportunities to manifest in social species (apart from situations when one group member is calling for another group member where the call might be functional and generalized (‘I am calling to have company’) or more specific and individualized (‘I am calling to have this particular individual for company’).
The ‘name’ might manifest as modifications to several types of vocalizations.
Just like human mothers use ‘softer, babying voice’ to address infants, it might be possible that animals adjust their pitch or their frequency or other qualities of the acoustic signals when addressing a specific individual and that these qualities are changed over a range of vocalizations when the particular individual is the recipient or the party to the communicative setting.
Thus, an animal might address one group mate in a ‘lower voice and less intense fluctuations in the signal’ while another in a ‘higher voice and more frequent changes in the signal patterns’ (e.g., in wolves those might be extended howls vs. yips etc.).
I believe these would make for exciting studies.
It is clear that wolves and other species can recognize individuals but do they apply this recognition in their communication or is the vocal communication still generalized and collective in its nature?
Similar ‘name’ or ‘personalized communication’ patterns might show also in other types of communication signals and modes (e.g., visual).
Notes by Ieva 