, 2008) and similarly, cyclical changes in the F0

of female voices have been found to be linked to the hormonal variations controlling the menstrual cycle (Abitbol, Abitbol & Abitbol, 1999; Caruso et al., 2000; Pipitone & Gallup, 2008). Similar hormonally induced physiological changes could be at the basis of F0 changes observed when non-human mammals reach sexual maturity, with sub-adults generally producing a higher F0 than mature males (baboons: Fischer et al., 2002; red deer: Reby & McComb, 2003a). In red deer, the vocal folds continue to grow in length after the animal itself has stopped growing, resulting in a strong correlation between vocal fold length and age throughout the lifetime of individuals (Reby & McComb, 2003b). When considering individuals across the whole developmental spectrum, F0 thus appears to co-vary Palbociclib solubility dmso with age (specifically with sexual maturity; baboons: Fischer et selleck chemicals al., 2002; red deer: Reby & McComb, 2003a) and sex (baboons: Rendall et al., 2005; Pfefferle & Fischer, 2006; fallow deer: Vannoni & McElligott, 2008; red deer: Reby & McComb, 2003a). Realizing the importance of filter-induced variation in animal vocalizations has been one of the most exciting recent developments in bioacoustics. Unlike the vocal folds, the vocal

tract cannot grow independently of the rest of the body for its development is anatomically constrained by skeletal structures (Fitch, 2000b,c). The vocal tract length is thus directly dependent on body size. Investigations have confirmed a strong negative correlation between vocal tract length and body size (domestic dogs X-rays: Riede & Fitch, 1999; red deer dissections: Fitch & Reby, 2001; rhesus macaque radiographs:

Fitch, 1997). This means that, unlike F0, formant frequencies have the potential to provide accurate or ‘honest’ information about the caller (Fitch, 1997, 2000c; Fitch & Reby, 2001; Fitch & Hauser, 2002; Reby & McComb, 2003b). The overall spacing between formants appears to play the greatest role in providing an acoustic correlate of caller size. This relationship is quantified under the term ‘formant dispersion’ (Titze, 1994; Fitch, 1997; Reby & McComb, 2003a), literally referring to the pattern of dispersion of formants in the spectrum of the call. A direct negative correlation between formant dispersion and body size (Japanese selleck compound macaques: Fitch, 1997; red deer: Reby & McComb, 2003a; domestic dogs: Riede & Fitch, 1999; Taylor et al., 2008; pandas: Charlton, Zhang & Snyder, 2009) has been confirmed in many species. Figure 2 illustrates the relationship between the formant dispersion calculated from growl vocalizations in 30 domestic dogs of different breeds and their respective body weight. When the importance of formant dispersion as a size code was first identified, it was calculated as the ‘average distance between each adjacent pair of formants’ (Fitch, 1997, p. 1216).