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<p>The duration of animal vocalizations varies between and within species. Which mammals can learn to control this duration? Such respiratory production learning is a scarcely studied subcomponent of vocal learning. Here, we test the hypothesis that harbor seals (<i>Phoca vitulina</i>) are capable of respiratory production learning by testing whether a harbor seal can be trained to i) actively control its vocalization’s duration in two directions (short and long), and ii) exceed the pre-experimental vocalization’s duration (min = 0.202&#xa0;s, max = 2.621&#xa0;s). The seal learned to produce uninterrupted vocalizations spanning more than two orders of magnitude in duration, from 79&#xa0;ms to 9.23&#xa0;s. Our findings demonstrate a remarkable level of respiratory control in a harbor seal: this respiratory production learning encompasses an extensive range of sound durations and arises at a young age. Producing durations that span such a magnitude is hardly reported in the non-human animal literature; this capacity may be orthogonal to other vocal learning modules and should be tested in more species, both vocal production learners and non-learners.</p>

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A harbor seal (Phoca vitulina) shows extensive respiratory control in sound production

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

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  • 发表日期：

    2025年9月2日

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  • Diandra Duengen,
  • Yannick Jadoul,
  • Andrea Ravignani

摘要

The duration of animal vocalizations varies between and within species. Which mammals can learn to control this duration? Such respiratory production learning is a scarcely studied subcomponent of vocal learning. Here, we test the hypothesis that harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) are capable of respiratory production learning by testing whether a harbor seal can be trained to i) actively control its vocalization’s duration in two directions (short and long), and ii) exceed the pre-experimental vocalization’s duration (min = 0.202 s, max = 2.621 s). The seal learned to produce uninterrupted vocalizations spanning more than two orders of magnitude in duration, from 79 ms to 9.23 s. Our findings demonstrate a remarkable level of respiratory control in a harbor seal: this respiratory production learning encompasses an extensive range of sound durations and arises at a young age. Producing durations that span such a magnitude is hardly reported in the non-human animal literature; this capacity may be orthogonal to other vocal learning modules and should be tested in more species, both vocal production learners and non-learners.