Abstract The production and structure of animal signals may depend on an individual’s health status and may provide more than one type of information to receivers. While alarm calls are not typically viewed as health condition dependent, recent studies have suggested that their structure, and possibly their propensity to be emitted, depends on an individual’s health condition and state. We asked whether the propensity of yellow-bellied marmots (Marmota flaviventer) to emit calls is influenced by their immunological or parasite status, by quantifying both trap-elicited and natural calling rates as a function of their neutrophil-to-lymphocyte (NL) ratio, the presence of a blood borne trypanosome, and the presence of several intestinal parasites (Eimeria sp., Entamoeba sp., and Ascaris sp.). We fitted mixed effects models to determine if the health measures we collected were associated with the probability of calling in a trap and with annual rates of natural alarm calling. Marmots infected with a blood-borne trypanosome were marginally more likely to call naturally and when trapped, while those infected with the intestinal parasite Ascaris were less likely to call when trapped. NL ratio was not directly associated with in-trap calling probability, but males were more likely to call when they had higher NL ratios. Thus, health conditions, such as parasite infection and immune system activation, can modulate the production of alarm signals and potentially provide information to both predators and prey about the caller’s condition. Playback experiments are required to confirm if receivers use such information.

中文翻译：

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发出警报呼叫的倾向是否与健康状况有关？

摘要 动物信号的产生和结构可能取决于个体的健康状况，并且可能向接收者提供不止一种类型的信息。虽然警报呼叫通常不被视为取决于健康状况，但最近的研究表明，它们的结构，以及它们发出的可能倾向，取决于个人的健康状况和状态。我们通过量化陷阱引发和自然呼叫率作为其中性粒细胞与淋巴细胞 (NL) 比率的函数，询问黄腹土拨鼠 (Marmota flaviventer) 发出呼叫的倾向是否受其免疫或寄生虫状态的影响、血源性锥虫的存在，以及几种肠道寄生虫（艾美球虫、内阿米巴和蛔虫）的存在。我们拟合了混合效应模型，以确定我们收集的健康指标是否与陷入陷阱的概率和年自然警报呼叫率有关。感染了血源锥虫的土拨鼠在被困时更可能自然地叫，而那些感染了肠道寄生虫蛔虫的土拨鼠在被困时不太可能叫。NL 比率与陷阱内呼叫概率没有直接关系，但是当男性的 NL 比率较高时，他们更有可能呼叫。因此，寄生虫感染和免疫系统激活等健康状况可以调节警报信号的产生，并可能向捕食者和猎物提供有关呼叫者状况的信息。需要回放实验来确认接收方是否使用这些信息。