Acoustic ecology of terrestrial mammals: a new Signaller–Receiver Conceptual Framework

Abstract

Abstract Mammals use sound for a variety of purposes, such as detecting the presence of others and maintaining social bonds. Much research on mammalian acoustics has been focussed on marine mammals and bats; less has considered terrestrial species. Our goal was to review knowledge about the role of acoustics in the behaviour and ecology of terrestrial mammals and to develop a conceptual framework that contextualises the knowledge. The purpose of the framework was to enable researchers to place their work in a broader understanding of the acoustics of terrestrial mammals, as well as to support them to articulate and explore new questions. We conducted a keyword search in Web of Science and removed papers that did not meet our criteria, resulting in 228 reviewed papers. We scored these for keywords and used concept maps to identify broad patterns. Of the 228 papers, 219 were focussed on acoustic communication. We therefore structured our Signaller–Receiver Conceptual Framework around factors that influence signallers (i.e. mammals producing sound) and receivers (i.e. mammals receiving sound). Factors that influence signallers were placed into two categories – those that influence call emission and those that influence call structure. Factors that influence receivers also fell into two categories – those that influence detection of sound and those that influence responses to sound. We added an additional receiver category – responses to sound. We present the framework in terms of five types of factors (environmental, social, morphological and physiological, state‐related factors, and other) and how they influence both signallers and receivers. Our review is the first to detail the range of factors influencing acoustic ecology of terrestrial mammals, and our framework provides context for the articulation of hypotheses that integrate multiple factors, and so can help researchers place their work in a broader context.