GOLDEN-MARMOT ALARM CALLS .2. ASYMMETRICAL PRODUCTION AND PERCEPTION OF SITUATIONALLY SPECIFIC VOCALIZATIONS

Many species produce alarm calls that vary according to situation. An implicit assumption for these species is that production and perceptio n of situationally specific alarm calls is symmetrical: perceivers res pond to variation produced by signalers. The companion paper to this o ne (BLUMSTEIN 1995) showed that golden marmots (Marmota caudata aurea) produce variable alarm calls that vary in proportion to the degree of risk the caller perceives. Calls produced in higher-risk situations h ave fewer notes than calls produced in lower-risk situations. In this study, to determine the salience of the number of notes per call in el iciting different responses in conspecific perceivers, I played back t hree-note alarm calls, eight-note alarm calls, and the non-alarm vocal ization of a local bird to adult golden marmots. Although marmots resp onded differently to bird calls and alarm calls, vigilance responses t o the different alarm calls were similar. Several explanations may acc ount for the apparent insensitivity to alarm-call variation: golden ma rmots may require additional contextual cues to properly interpret ala rm calls, perceptual abilities do not parallel production abilities, o r calls may serve a generalized alerting function.