{"id":1089,"date":"2017-11-10T11:52:31","date_gmt":"2017-11-10T11:52:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol325\/?p=1089"},"modified":"2017-11-10T23:02:12","modified_gmt":"2017-11-10T23:02:12","slug":"a-closer-look-at-the-drumming-display-of-the-ruffed-grouse-bonasa-umbellus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol325\/2017\/11\/10\/a-closer-look-at-the-drumming-display-of-the-ruffed-grouse-bonasa-umbellus\/","title":{"rendered":"A Closer Look at the Drumming Display of the Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa umbellus)"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\"\"<\/a>Figure 1) A Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa umbellus<\/em>) drumming on a log<\/p>\n

Just like how all humans have unique voices, various studies have shown that many vocally active species have vocal individuality as well. Individual variation in vocalizations can signal important information such as age, body size, sex, and social status of the emitter to other members of the same species (Favaro et al. 2015). In birds, evidence for individual acoustic variation in vocal signals exists in a wide range of species such as the Eastern Screech-owl, the African Wood Owl and the Bald eagle (to name a few!) (Cavanagh & Ritchison 1987;\u00a0 Delport et al. 2002; Eakle et al. 1989). Vocalizations, however, are not the only acoustic means birds use in mate selection (O’neil 2014). Non-vocal acoustic signals created by mechanical means, are rather common but are less well understood (O’neil 2014). One example of a mechanical courtship display is the courtship display of the male Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa umbellus<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\t

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