Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Wolf Howling and Emergency Sirens: A Hypothesis of Natural and Technical Convergence of Aposematic Signals

  • Regular Article
  • Published:
Acta Biotheoretica Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Acoustic signals serving intraspecific communication by predators are perceived by potential prey as warning signals. We analysed the acoustic characteristics of howling of wolves and found a striking similarity to the warning sounds of technical sirens. We hypothesize that the effectivity of sirens as warning signals has been enhanced by natural sensory predisposition of humans to get alerted by howling of wolves, with which they have a long history of coexistence. Psychoacoustic similarity of both stimuli seems to be supported by the fact that wolves and dogs perceive the sound of technical sirens as a relevant releasing supernormal stimulus and reply to it with howling. Inspiration by naturally occurring acoustic aposematic signals might become an interesting example of biomimetics in designing new warning sound systems.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Baldwin CL, Runkle RS (1967) Biohazards symbol: development of a biological hazards warning signal. Science 158(798):264–265. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.158.3798.264.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brodie Edmund DIII, Agrawal Anell F (2001) Maternal effects and the evolution of aposematic signals. Proc Natl Acad Sci 58(14):7884–7887. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.141075998

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beyer RT (1999) Sounds of our times, two hundred years of acoustics. Springer-Verlag, Inc, New York, p 444

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Caro T (2009) Contrasting coloration in terrestrial mammals. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 364(1516):537–548. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2008.0221. PMC 2674080. PMID 18990666

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eisner T, Grant RP (1981) Toxicity, Odor Aversion, and ‘Olfactory Aposematism’. Science 213(4506):476. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.7244647. PMID 7244647

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gaubert P, Bloch C, Benyacoub S, Abdelhamid A, Pagani P, Adéyèmi C, Djagoun MC, Coloux A, Dufour S (2012) Reviving the African Wolf Canis lupus lupaster in North and West Africa: A mitochondrial lineage ranging more than 6,000 km wide. PLOS ONE 7(8):e42740

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harrington FH (1978) Ravens attracted to wolf howling. Condor 80:236–237

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harrington FH, Mech LD (1983) Wolf Pack Spacing: Howling as a Territory-Independent Spacing Mechanism in a Territorial Population. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 12:161–168

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hennelly L et al (2017) Howl variation across Himalayan, North African, Indian, and Holarctic wolf clades: tracing divergence in the world’s oldest wolf lineages using acoustics. Curr Zool 63(3):341–348

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hermans EJ, Henckens MJ, Roelofs K, Fernández G (2013) Fear bradycardia and activation of the human periaqueductal grey. Neuroimage 66:278–287

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kershenbaum A et al (2016) Disentangling canid howls across multiple species and subspecies: Structure in a complex communication channel. Behav Proc 124:149–157

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lemaitre G, Susini P, Winsberg S, McAdams S (2009) The sound quality of car horns: Designing new representative sounds. Acta Acustica 95:356–372

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Llaneza L, Ordiz A, Palacios V, Uzal A (2005) Monitoring wolf populations using howlings points combined with sign survey transects. Wild Biol Pract 1:108–117

    Google Scholar 

  • Macdonald DW, Sillero-Zubiri C (2004) Biology and conservation of wild canids. Oxford University Press, Oxford, p 450

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Merilaita S, Kaitala V (2002) Community structure and the evolution of aposematic coloration. Ecol Lett 5(4):495–501. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1461-0248.2002.00362.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moen AN, DellaFera MA, Hiller AL, Buxton BA (1978) Heart rates of white-tailed deer fawns in response to recorded wolf howls. Canad J Zool 56:1207–1210

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nowak S, Jedrzejewski W, Krzysztof S, Theuerkauf J, Myslajek RW, Jedrzejewska B (2007) Howling activity of free-ranging wolves (Canis lupus) in the Bialowieza primeval forest and the Western Beskidy Mountains (Poland). J Ethol 25:231–237

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Palacios V, Font E, Márquez R (2007) Iberian wolf howls: Acoustic structure, individual variation, and a comparison with North American populations. J Mammal 88:606–613

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Palacios V, Font E, Marquez R, Carazo P (2015) Recognition of familiarity on the basis of howls: a playback experiment in a captive group of wolves. Behaviour 152:593–614

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Palacios V et al (2017) Reliability of human estimates of the presence of pups and the number of wolves vocalizing in chorus howls: implications for decision-making processes. Eur J Wildl Res 63(3):59

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Papin M et al (2018) Acoustic localization at large scales: a promising method for grey wolf monitoring. Front Zool 15(1):11

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Passilongo D, Buccianti A, Dessi-Fulgheri F, Gazzola A, Zaccaroni M, Apollonio M (2010) The acoustic structure of wolf howls in some eastern Tuscany (Central Italy) free ranging packs. Bioacoustics 19:159–175

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Passilongo D, Mattioli L, Bassi E, Szabó L, Apollonio M (2015) Visualizing sound: counting wolves by using a spectral view of the chorus howling. Front Zool 12:22

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Patterson RD, Mayfield TF (1990) Warning sounds in the work environment. Philos Trans R Soc Lond Ser B Biol Sci 327(1241):485–492

    Google Scholar 

  • Ruxton GD, Sherratt TN (2006) Aggregation, defense, and warning signals: the evolutionary relationship. Proc R Soc 273:2417–2424. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2006.3570

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stevens M, Ruxton GD (2012) Linking the evolution and form of warning coloration in nature. Proc R Soc  Biol Sci 279:417–426. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2011.1932

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tehrani JJ (2013) The Phylogeny of Little Red Riding Hood. PLOS ONE 8(11):e78871

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Theberge JB, Falls JB (1967) Howling as a means of communication in Timber Wolves. Am Zool 7:331–338

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tooze ZJ, Harrington FH, Fentress JC (1990) Individually distinct vocalizations in timber wolves, Canis lupus. Anim Behav 40:723–730

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yoles I, Hod M, Kaplan B, Ovadia J (1993) Fetal ‘fright-bradycardia’ brought on by air-raid alarm in Israel. J Gynecol Obstet 40:157–160

    Google Scholar 

  • Zaccaroni M et al (2012) Group specific vocal signature in free-ranging wolf packs. Ethol Ecol Evol 24(4):322–331

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Internal Grant Agency of Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences (IGA FLD, Reg. Number B0114/006).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Game Management and Wildlife Biology, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences, Kamýcká 129, 165 21, Prague 6, Czech Republic

    Diana Kořanová, Lucie Němcová, Richard Policht, Vlastimil Hart & Hynek Burda

  2. Department of General Zoology, Faculty of Biology, University of Duisburg-Essen, 45117, Essen, Germany

    Sabine Begall

Authors
  1. Diana Kořanová
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Lucie Němcová
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Richard Policht
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Vlastimil Hart
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Sabine Begall
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Hynek Burda
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lucie Němcová.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Kořanová, D., Němcová, L., Policht, R. et al. Wolf Howling and Emergency Sirens: A Hypothesis of Natural and Technical Convergence of Aposematic Signals. Acta Biotheor 69, 53–65 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10441-020-09389-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10441-020-09389-6

Keywords

Search

Navigation