Abstract
Communication plays a fundamental role in the social behavior of phocids, as individuals gain valuable information that aids in kin recognition, mate selection, and rival assessment. In this chapter, we provide an overview of the communication strategies used by phocid seals, which include acoustic, olfactory, and visual elements. We discuss the social contexts in which information exchange occurs, and how communication differs between females, pups, and adult males of different species during the breeding season. While significant effort has been directed toward characterizing the acoustic behavior of several seal species, much remains to be learned about how different phocids utilize available olfactory and visual information during interactions with conspecifics. We suggest that future work focuses on filling in these knowledge gaps while also experimentally testing the functional significance of different signaling strategies in the social lives of seals.
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Charrier, I., Casey, C. (2022). Social Communication in Phocids. In: Costa, D.P., McHuron, E.A. (eds) Ethology and Behavioral Ecology of Phocids . Ethology and Behavioral Ecology of Marine Mammals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88923-4_3
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