Moonlight makes owls more chatty

Background: Lunar cycles seem to affect many of the rhythms, temporal patterns and behaviors of living things on Earth. Ambient light is known to affect visual communication in animals, with the conspicuousness of visual signals being largely determined by the light available for reflection by the s...

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Autores: Penteriani, Vincenzo, Delgado Sánchez, María del Mar, Campioni, Letizia, Lourenço, Rui
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2010
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/62262
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/62262
Access Level:acceso abierto
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spelling Moonlight makes owls more chattyPenteriani, VincenzoDelgado Sánchez, María del MarCampioni, LetiziaLourenço, RuiBackground: Lunar cycles seem to affect many of the rhythms, temporal patterns and behaviors of living things on Earth. Ambient light is known to affect visual communication in animals, with the conspicuousness of visual signals being largely determined by the light available for reflection by the sender. Although most previous studies in this context have focused on diurnal light, moonlight should not be neglected from the perspective of visual communication among nocturnal species. We recently discovered that eagle owls Bubo bubo communicate with conspecifics using a patch of white throat plumage that is repeatedly exposed during each call and is only visible during vocal displays. Methodology/Principal Findings: Here we provide evidence that this species uses moonlight to increase the conspicuousness of this visual signal during call displays. We found that call displays are directly influenced by the amount of moonlight, with silent nights being more frequent during periods with no-moonlight than moonlight. Furthermore, high numbers of calling bouts were more frequent at moonlight. Finally, call posts were located on higher positions on moonlit nights. Conclusions/Significance: Our results support the idea that moon phase affects the visual signaling behavior of this species, and provide a starting point for examination of this method of communication by nocturnal species. © 2010 Penteriani et al.Peer ReviewedPublic Library of Science2012201220102012info:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501Publisher's versioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionhttp://hdl.handle.net/10261/62262reponame:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSICinstname:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)Inglésinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:digital.csic.es:10261/622622026-05-22T06:33:51Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Moonlight makes owls more chatty
title Moonlight makes owls more chatty
spellingShingle Moonlight makes owls more chatty
Penteriani, Vincenzo
title_short Moonlight makes owls more chatty
title_full Moonlight makes owls more chatty
title_fullStr Moonlight makes owls more chatty
title_full_unstemmed Moonlight makes owls more chatty
title_sort Moonlight makes owls more chatty
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Penteriani, Vincenzo
Delgado Sánchez, María del Mar
Campioni, Letizia
Lourenço, Rui
author Penteriani, Vincenzo
author_facet Penteriani, Vincenzo
Delgado Sánchez, María del Mar
Campioni, Letizia
Lourenço, Rui
author_role author
author2 Delgado Sánchez, María del Mar
Campioni, Letizia
Lourenço, Rui
author2_role author
author
author
description Background: Lunar cycles seem to affect many of the rhythms, temporal patterns and behaviors of living things on Earth. Ambient light is known to affect visual communication in animals, with the conspicuousness of visual signals being largely determined by the light available for reflection by the sender. Although most previous studies in this context have focused on diurnal light, moonlight should not be neglected from the perspective of visual communication among nocturnal species. We recently discovered that eagle owls Bubo bubo communicate with conspecifics using a patch of white throat plumage that is repeatedly exposed during each call and is only visible during vocal displays. Methodology/Principal Findings: Here we provide evidence that this species uses moonlight to increase the conspicuousness of this visual signal during call displays. We found that call displays are directly influenced by the amount of moonlight, with silent nights being more frequent during periods with no-moonlight than moonlight. Furthermore, high numbers of calling bouts were more frequent at moonlight. Finally, call posts were located on higher positions on moonlit nights. Conclusions/Significance: Our results support the idea that moon phase affects the visual signaling behavior of this species, and provide a starting point for examination of this method of communication by nocturnal species. © 2010 Penteriani et al.
publishDate 2010
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2010
2012
2012
2012
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501
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dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv http://hdl.handle.net/10261/62262
url http://hdl.handle.net/10261/62262
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Public Library of Science
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Public Library of Science
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
instname:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
instname_str Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
reponame_str DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
collection DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
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