Washington
(ANI):
Artists
like
Justin
Beiber
and
Usher
owe
their
unique
sounding
voices
to
the
large
social
circles
of
their
ancestors,
says
a
new
study
from
the
University
of
California,
Los
Angeles.
According
to
Kimberly
Pollard,
the
size
of
an
animal's
social
group
helps
to
determine
the
uniqueness
of
that
individual's
voice.
"Group
size
definitely
matters
here.
The
bigger
the
crowd,
the
more
it
takes
to
stand
out," Discovery
News
quoted
her
as
saying.
"Imagine
if
you
hung
out
with
the
same
three
people
every
day.
You
certainly
wouldn't
need
to
dress
like
Lady
Gaga
to
be
recognized,
but
in
a
group
of
50,
100,
or
more,
it
sure
could
help,"
she
added.
Pollard
and
colleague
Daniel
Blumstein
examined
rodent
species
that
included
California
ground
squirrels,
Olympic
marmots,
yellow-bellied
marmots,
black-tailed
prairie
dogs,
white-tailed
prairie
dogs,
thirteen-lined
ground
squirrels,
Belding's
ground
squirrels,
and
Richardson's
ground
squirrels.
They
caught
individuals
from
each
of
these
groups
in
a
live
trap.
They
recorded
vocal
alarm
calls
from
each
of
these
rodents
and
compared
them
to
the
alarm
vocalizations
of
other
members
in
that
rodent''s
particular
social
group.
The
results
showed
that
the
size
of
the
groups
predicted
the
uniqueness
of
each
voice.
The
larger
the
social
group,
the
more
distinctive
the
voices
were.
"Differences
in
rodent
voices
are
much
like
differences
in
human
voices.
Some
animals''
voices
are
high-pitched,
others
are
low.
Some
voices
are
clear,
others
are
more
scratchy.
Individual
animals
also
have
different
timbre
and
use
different
patterns
of
emphasis.
Each
call
has
an
animal''s
unique
vocal
stamp
on
it," Pollard
said.
"People
often
assume
that
our
ability
to
recognize
individuals
is
simply
a
consequence
of
natural
biological
variability
in
detectable
physical
traits
found
in
any
population
of
individuals
in
any
species,"
said
Michael
Beecher,
a
professor
of
psychology
and
biology
at
the
University
of
Washington.
"If
this
were
true,
it
should
be
equally
easy
to
distinguish
among
individuals
of
any
species,
so
long
as
you
have
the
requisite
perceptual
abilities
of
that
species."
According
to
the
researchers,
however,
larger
social
groups
make
it
more
difficult
to
identify
members,
prompting
the
evolutionary
drive
for
individual
uniqueness.
The
study
is
published
in
the
latest
issue
of
Current
Biology.